Driven also by the heightened recognition of health and care workers during COVID-19, the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly requested WHO to synthesize technical guidance on protection and safeguarding of health and care workers. The resultant care compact consolidates relevant international legal instruments to provide succinct guidance on how to protect health and care workers, to safeguard their rights, and to promote and ensure decent work, free from racial and all other forms of discrimination and a safe and enabling practice environment.
Statements during Assembly underscored the critical obligation to protect health workers, in particular women and young people, and more than once highlighted the “paramount importance” of this action. Within overall support for the care compact, Member States shared actions already implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflected their intent to use the care compact to review and strengthen national policies, regulations and strategies.
Member States and all relevant stakeholders can use the document’s recommendations and citations to inform policy dialogue, national and subnational review, and action on their policy and legal frameworks, in cooperation with health and care workers and their associations. The Secretariat will develop a toolkit to support implementation of the technical guidance.