At its recent meeting in Mexico, he was elected president of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
He is the first person from the southern hemisphere to hold the post.
"I'm very happy indeed about it," he said in Dunedin yesterday.
Prof Evans, who is a member and former director of the university's Bioethics Centre, said he was coming to the end of his career and was "greatly honoured" to gain the committee presidency.
Representing all 191 member states of Unesco, the committee is a body of 36 independent experts that monitors developments in the life sciences, and how they are applied, to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom.
The committee includes leading lawyers, clinicians, researchers and bioethicists such as Prof Evans.
The first bioethicist elected president will serve a two-year term.
Prof Evans said his election partly reflected the hard work he had put in as a member of the committee over the past six years.
The University of Otago had made a significant contribution to bioethics education by integrating what was, in international terms, a large amount of bioethics teaching into its undergraduate medical teaching programme.
"It's something to be proud of," he said.
There was internationally a much wider acceptance of the importance of bioethics than there had been when he first became involved with "medical ethics" 28 years ago.
There was a positive side to globalisation with the growing awareness the benefits of medical technology should be shared with poorer, developing countries.
A strong connection had now been made between bioethics and international human rights through the adoption by Unesco several years ago of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.
The committee would be continuing its work on aspects of human cloning and preparing reports on international progress over individual articles in the universal declaration.
The declaration emphasises social responsibility and a Unesco statement notes that progress in science and technology should promote the wellbeing of individuals and humanity, "notably by improving access to quality health care and essential medicines as well as to adequate nutrition and water".
The committee provided the only global forum for in-depth bioethical reflection by exposing the issues at stake, Otago University officials said yesterday.
Prof Evans served as vice-president of the IBC for the past two years.
He will also sit as a member of Unesco's World Commission on Ethics in Science and Technology for the next two years.
