Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the support of the UNESCO Moscow Office conducted the VII International Ombudsman Conference in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on 17-19 June 2009. This year in the focus of the annual Conference were the issues of Bioethics, Human Rights and New Technologies: legal and ethical aspects of reproductive health and family planning.

The aim of the Conference was to discuss modern problems in the field of human rights related to the rapid developments in science and technology.

Among the participants were the members of Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan, ombudspersons and representatives of the academic communities from Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Pakistan, Egypt, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Russian Federation, the representatives of the international organizations, governmental and non-governmental institutions, international and national experts in the field of human rights, bioethics and ethics of science and technology, representatives of academic community, governmental institutions, intergovernmental organizations, the members of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee as well as the National Bioethics Committees of CIS countries and others.

During the first day of the Conference many interesting reports and presentations were made on the following subjects: bioethics and the protection of human rights and dignity in the field of biomedicine, realization of principles of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights in CIS countries, national legislations of the CIS Member-States in the field of bioethics, bioethical problems of reproductive health, ethical aspects of transplantation of human organs, etc.

During the second day the meeting was divided into two Seminars. First seminar gave the participants, specialists in the field of medicine and bioethics, the opportunity to get acquainted with the experience of the most active national bioethics committees, to discuss the issues regarding the protection of human rights and dignity in the context of the modern bioethics as well as practical steps for establishing local ethics committees in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Second seminar gathered the ombudspersons and experts in the field of human rights and raised for the discussion the new institutions and mechanisms of the protection of human rights.