The World Health Organization will set up a global certification system, similar to the European Union’s digital Covid certificate. This “world health passport” is possible thanks to an agreement reached between the WHO and the European Commission on Monday.
The European Commission and the World Health Organization announced a historic partnership in the field of digital health on Monday 5 June. From Geneva, EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus laid the foundation for this initiative, which will strengthen global health security. This new “global health passport” will be inspired by the health passport launched in more than 80 countries during the Covid-19 crisis in Europe: “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the importance of digital health solutions to ensure access to health services.”, reasoned the director-general of the WHO.
This “Global Health Pass” aims to strengthen cooperation between countries on global health issues. This partnership includes collaboration on the development, management and implementation of the system by WHO, drawing on EU expertise in this area.
No access to personal information
In the conference statement, the two organizations explain that it is “the first building block of the WHO global digital health certification network, which will develop a wide range of digital products to ensure better health for all.”
In particular, this facilitates travel between people who have this certificate. In the future, this device will allow the WHO to extend its analysis beyond Covid-19. For example, it will be possible to digitize the certification of vaccines. According to the WHO, “The scale-up of these digital solutions will be critical to bringing better health to citizens around the world.”
The cooperation between the two organizations is based on values ”of transparency and openness, inclusivity, accountability, privacy and confidentiality, security and fairness”. The two organizations therefore have no access to the personal data of the users of this digital certificate.
Neither the effective date of such a device nor the precise form that it will take have yet been determined. The WHO will now enter a negotiation phase with member countries to adopt this new global health passport. The organization ensures that special attention is paid to the fairness of this system: to enable low- and middle-income countries to participate in the global health passport.