ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to draw a parallel between these two significant efforts – human rights and bioethics – of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the promotion of universal human rights. It emphasizes that the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) is ultimately an extension of international human rights law to the specific field of biomedicine. Human rights are legal entitlements to have or do something that people have simply by virtue of their humanity. The human rights framework provides "a more useful approach for analysing and responding to modern public health challenges than any framework far available within the biomedical tradition". Human rights are regarded by international law as flexible enough to be compatible, within certain limits, with respect for cultural diversity. Universal human rights and their grounding in human dignity are called to contribute to peace by playing a role as a bridge between cultures.
