First Asia-Pacific Conference on Ethics Education for All

The First Asia-Pacific Conference on "Ethics Education for All: Searching for a New Paradigm of Learning to Live Together" is being organized by the Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific of the UNESCO Office in Bangkok, from 28 to 30 October 2014 in Hua Hin, Thailand. The purpose of the Conference is to generate dialogue and debate on the nature and needs of developing ethics teaching programs in the Asia-Pacific region. There will be a particular focus on global justice, curriculum and future trends in ethics education.

The event will gather representatives from UNESCO National Commissions, members of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee from Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and key academic institutions working on ethics education.

The conference will allow participants to share information and discuss ethics teaching programs in Asia and the Pacific.

How should such programs be embedded within the need for poverty eradication, redistribution of resources, access to social services and the needs of the wider population? How can our academic programs take on such a global justice emphasis while maintaining the standards and rigour required to develop our future moral thinkers and leaders? How can Asia-Pacific respond to global challenges whilst maintaining an emphasis on Asian and Pacific approaches to ethics education?

The conference theme will be “Ethics Education for All: Searching for a New Paradigm of Learning to Live Together” with the following subthemes:
- Social and global justice: how ethics education can be applied for achieving sustainable social and community development ;
- The ethics curriculum at university or school ;
- Global perspectives on ethics teaching: trends, challenges and opportunities.

Through presentations, discussion and panels sessions, the Conference will explore these issues and make recommendations for the future of UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Ethics Education Program.

The Conference will include both plenary and parallel session allowing participants to delve more deeply into each of the sub-themes. A poster session will also be provided for the display and sharing of materials on ethics teaching programs developed by participants.

A general call for papers has been circulated and key note speakers identified. Abstracts can be submitted up until 31 July 2014.