ABSTRACT
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the only UN Specialized Agency with a specific mandate on bioethics and life sciences, and it has accordingly established international standards on the protection of human rights in the domain of science and medicine. The term 'soft law' is used to indicate a series of acts, located in a 'grey area' of international law, in contrast with the 'white area' of hard law, not homogenous as to their origin and nature that, although void of binding legal effects, can however have a legal relevance in the long term. This phenomenon has been so qualified by scholars, because of the easy and flexible method of law creation; in fact soft law offers a simpler package to accept by States than hard law. In the process of 'hardening', soft law firstly permits and facilitates the assessment of customary rules or general principles of international law, performing a function of interpretation of international law.
