The annual conference of the Asian Bioethics Association (ABA) will be hosted in Malaysia from 27 to 30 August 2012. This 13th Asian Bioethics Conference brings together scholars and policy makers from many disciplines all around the world to discuss and deliberate on the theme Bioethics and Life: Security, Science and Society. Paper presentation and participation are welcomed from academics, scholars, policy makers, students and enthusiasts in the various disciplines. 

Organizers: Asian Bioethics Association and Asia Pacific Forum on Ethics & Social Justice (Malaysia) in partnership with UNESCO, the Institute of Diplomacy & Foreign Relations (Malaysia), the Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities (UKM), Institute of Malaysian and International Studies and the Eubios Ethics Institute.

Registration form [Word]. 

Past annual conference proceedings and abstracts (1995 - 2011).

The Conference Flyer (PDF)

On 11 March 2011 Tohoku area experienced a record magnitude 9.0 earthquake that in its 10 minutes led to the world’s most expensive disaster, and a tsunami (that was 15m high in places). Since then they have experienced several major earthquakes and many thousands of aftershocks. Over 15,000 people died and thousands are still missing. The debris has spread across the Pacific Ocean. Sendai airport was flooded by the tsunami. While Sendai city has rebuilt, many coastal villages still suffer from debris. The first day of the forum, 16th August, will be a full day bus trip with chances to join in some community service as well as see the area.  

While hazards are natural, disasters are not.  Young people need to not only be aware of the risks and impacts of hazards, but also have take action to prepare for and respond to disasters. Young people have shown already their potential to create a world that takes a proactive stance against tragedies caused by disaster.  Disasters can destroy communities but also rebuild them. As key agents of promoting change UNESCO has gathered young community leaders in the Youth Looking Beyond Disaster programme. The first UNESCO Youth Forum: Looking Beyond Disaster, was held in December 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, with 100 participants from around the world. Youth developed 25 action plans to rebuild communities from disasters. Some of these will be presenting the implementation of their action plans.  Many new participants with experiences from rebuilding communities will join the network in the Sendai meeting from other communities around the world.

The expected outcomes include: 
• Strengthening a new global network of young people across Asia and the Pacific empowered to share experiences and exchange ideas on disaster and community;
• Saving lives and reducing the suffering from disasters;
• Giving hope in concrete ways for self-recovery of communities from disasters;
• Support for youth-led projects to be implemented in different countries; 
• Development of evaluation skills to assess efforts already made;
• Learning lessons from the rapid recovery in this region;
• Examining the psychosocial issues and challenges of community rebuilding, and stigmatization of communities faced with fears of low level radiochemical exposure;
• Getting communities and the policy structures ready for rapid response to disasters;
• Following up on recommendations on information flow in disasters; youth resilience, rebuilding communities and disaster response.
• Considerations of academic and community infrastructures that can assist youth;

Who can come?
The conference is especially for youth who have experienced natural disasters, and the challenges that means for their communities. There will also be some students specializing in disaster recovery, and a few experts to assist in mentoring. We seek participants in their late teens through their twenties. There will also be some older persons who are setting up structures to enhance youth community service, and youth involvement in recovering from communities. If you have any inquiries you can write to the organizers.

How to apply?
There is no application fee. Applications to participate should take the form of an expression of interest email composed by you that outlines (in less than 500 words) why you would like to participate in this forum, post-disaster activities you have been involved in, and/or suggestions for an action plan to develop with other participants. 

Please also explain what you have learnt from facing a disaster in your community.

Send your email to d.macer@unesco.org Dr. Darryl Macer, RUSHSAP, UNESCO Bangkok, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, THAILAND Updated programmes are available on the website:

http://www.unescobkk.org/rushsap/youth/youth-looking-beyond-disaster/

Organisers
The organisers include the Regional Unit in Social and Human Sciences for Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP) at UNESCO Bangkok, Miyagi International Association (MIA), and Eubios Ethics Institute, in collaboration with Sendai International Relations Association (SIRA), Asia-Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU), National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan and Education Center for Disaster Reduction of Hyogo University, Japan.

General information
The conference will be informal, and meals, lunches and tea breaks will be provided in the conference package which is approx. USD50 per day including shared accommodation and food. English is the working language, but some interpretation into Japanese will be available. It is possible to develop action plans in other languages, but an English translation should be provided. It is intended to make the conference a memorable time together in sharing lessons and friendships, in various ways across cultures.

Financial issues
We are seeking financial support for assistance but we do not expect to be able to cover the travel of participants, therefore registrants should be prepared to gather their own expenses to travel to Sendai, and pay the meal and accommodation package at JPY25,000 for university students, and JPY22,000 for high school students for the meals and accommodation from 15th afternoon checkin to 20th morning checkout. Accommodation will be booked in either Western or Japanese style rooms at a central venue, Espol Sendai (www.seinenkaikan.or.jp), where the forum will also occur.  

No safety concerns 
Sendai is 94km from the site of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant where there were 3 meltdowns. The forum will not be going near this area, and we consider Sendai, a bustling and exciting city of over a million persons, safe for visitors to participate in the short period in the area.  Although one of the topics of some participants will be recovery from Fukushima disaster (and some are part of existing action plans), we do not encourage youth to go near the exclusion zone which is about 20km from the reactor site. Travel from Tokyo to Sendai is not near the site also, by the highway bus, shinkansen, or air flight.  

You may wish to take the opportunity to travel in Japan to experience the beauty of the country and hospitality of its people before or after the Forum. Ideas can be exchanged on the facebook group “Looking Beyond Disaster: UNESCO Youth Forum”. 

The Draft Programme of the Foum [PDF] 

Call for participation [PDF]

Papers submitted by the participants should not exceed 15/20 pages, should be written in English and should endeavor to contain policy implications (and if appropriate, policy recommendations). The participants are invited to address following issues: 

- the philosophical, historical and theoretical underpinnings of humanitarian intervention
- international law, international institutions and the reality of humanitarian interventions
- the role of global civil society 
- soldiers in the name of human rights? What are the alternatives?
- reconciling humanitarian intervention with State sovereignty and principles of non-intervention           

The Conference Concept Note [PDF] 

Registration Form [Word doc.]

For more information please visit the conference web site www.gdoshisha.wordpress.com 

Proceedings of the first Doshisha-UNESCO International Conference on "Asian perspectives on Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st Century", 28 - 29 June 2011, Kyoto, Japan are available at http://gdoshisha.wordpress.com  
  

UNESCO-Concordian Joint Workshop "Youth Visions of the Future from Dreams of Peace to Reality" to launch UNESCO Youth Peace Ambassador Network in Thailand 

Venue: Concordian International School, 918 Moo 8, Tambon Bangkaew, Amphur Bangplee Samutprakarn 10540 Bangkok, Thailand 

Organizers: Concordian International School, UNESCO Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific

In January 2011 the Joint UNESCO-Concordian Conference “I Dream of Peace” was held in Bangkok with the active participation by students from a number of schools. The students presented many of their aspirations. This year we would like to gather youth as well as institutional facilitators together to discuss the outcomes of the peace related activities in their institutions (high schools, universities and NGOs), to share ideas that may held in activities in different spaces and places this year. 

Participants
We expect Youth from high schools, universities and NGOs. In order to help ensure continuity we also welcome Institutional Facilitators to join. Those applying to attend should give name, institution, age, and reasons to join, in English. The event will be conducted in English, although individual group planning may be done in other languages.

We request pre-registration for the limited spaces by 1 May to UNESCO by Email: rushsap.bgk@unesco.org 

Expected Outcomes for Youth Participants
We expect participants to network with each other, to share examples of the results they have achieved, the difficulties they faced (whether they were overcome or not), and to share visions of the future. Some youth already have action plans, others will develop more, and a group of youth will also start preparing concretely for the UNESCO Thai Youth Peace Festival, (current planned dates are 22-23 September 2012).

Expected Outcomes for Facilitators
The programme will include a break out activity space for facilitators to share their experiences and consider how institutions can support student peace activities. There may be different activities already underway, and new ones that are planned. Some of the institutional plans can be showcased in the UNESCO Thai Youth Peace Festival, September 2012. There may also be separate activities in different schools and institutions, and we would like to work together to share experience.

Draft Agenda and Background information [PDF - updated 17 May].      

Inquiries to rushsap.bgk@unesco.org.      

The aim of the Conference is to provide a forum for governors, mayors and local governments in Asia and the Pacific regions for sharing best practices and evaluating experiences with others for developing and strengthening their policies to counter all forms of discrimination. Also to advance on the elimination of discrimination in policies and practices through the implementation of Ten Point of Action Plans and to develop concrete activities including a greater social inclusion of city dwellers in the full respect of their political, economic, social, and cultural human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

The Conference theme is Creative Cities for Glocal (Global + Local) Security and Peace, sub-themes are: 1. Human Rights and Cities; 2. Social Inclusion; 3.Cities and Global Environment Change. Participants are invited to have a thematic discussion on discrimination-related issues such as education, culture, housing, employment, economic, environment and others. 

Organizers: Gwangju Metropolitan Government, Republic of Korea, Korean National Commission for UNESCO and Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok.

For details please contact Sarinya Sophia, Programme Officer, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok. E-mail: s.sophia@unesco.org

Asian-Arab Philosophical Dialogues on Culture of Peace and Human Dignity. Darryl R.J. Macer (Ed), 2011. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok, 260 p.

ISBN 978-92-9223-378-5 (Print Version)
ISBN 978-92-9223-377-8 (Electronic Version)

_{Bangkok, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok. v + 110 pp.
ISBN 978-92-9223-355-6 (Print version)
ISBN 978-92-9223-356-3 (Electronic version; PDF file - 1,52MB)}

This report stems from the work of Working Group 4 established under the framework of the Ethics and Energy Technologies in Asia and Pacific project (EETAP), launched in September 2007 by the RegionalUnit in Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP) at UNESCO Bangkok. It examines the rights of states to make decisions on energy technologies for their people, and instances when such decisions pose environmental or security risks to the region. This repot identifies the government of each nation state as a body entrusted with the duty of administration and
management, with the authority to direct and implement laws and policies, including laws and policies concerning energy development and use. 

Meat production is a complex and multifaceted issue that is deeply connected to matters of environment, politics, public health, public perception, economics, socio-economics, and ethics. It is also a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and is therefore an important consideration in any climate change policy formulation. Future projections for the consumption of meat through 2050 indicate that an increase in demand by all countries will occur with the most significant increases projected in the developing countries, especially in Asia.

Past publication are listed here.

ISBN 978-92-9223-358-7 (Print version)
ISBN 978-92-9223-359-4 (Electronic version