Health Ethics & Governance
We provide a focal point for the examination of ethical issues raised by activities throughout the Organization and foster discussion and debate on diverse topics in global health ethics.
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Publications

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Embedding ethics in health and climate change: WHO satellite meeting at the 14th Global Summit of National Ethics Committees, San Marino, 16 April 2024
3 December 2025

Embedding ethics in health and climate change: WHO satellite meeting at the 14th Global Summit of National...

This World Health Organization (WHO) satellite meeting on embedding ethics in health and climate change, held at the 14th Global Summit of national ethics...

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WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: report of the third meeting, 16 July 2024
3 December 2025

WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: report of the third...

The World Health Organization recognizes climate change as the biggest health threat facing humanity. In furtherance of its mandate of “articulating...

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WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: report of the second meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-7 May 2024
28 October 2025

WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: report of the second...

The World Health Organization recognizes climate change as the biggest health threat facing humanity. In furtherance of its mandate of “articulating...

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WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: meeting report, 7 February 2024
28 October 2025

WHO Technical Advisory Group on Embedding Ethics in Health and Climate Change Policy: meeting report,...

The World Health Organization recognizes climate change as the biggest health threat facing humanity. In furtherance of its mandate of “articulating...

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Documents

21 January 2025

Terms of Reference: Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics

The Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics (hereafter referred to as the “Network”) was established to “support the...

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15 May 2023

The Brochure of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics

This two-pager provides a quick overview of he Global Network and its activities

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24 January 2022

Ethics review of COVID-19 human challenge studies: a joint HRA/WHO workshop

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has had an extraordinary...

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29 December 2021

List of research protocols approved or exempted by the WHO ad hoc ERC for COVID-19

The list of protocols approved or exempted by this committee (Table 1) is provided to ensure that member states and partners can easily determine what...

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Multimedia

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11 April 2025

WHO EPI-WIN Webinar: social listening in infodemic management for public health emergencies
28 June 2021

Dr Tedros video message on Ethics and governance of AI for health
3 October 2016

Dr Soumya Swaminathan on the central role of ethics in WHO’s work
3 October 2016

Ethics matters in health

Health topic

Global health ethics
WHO
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Global health ethics

Ethics

Ethical questions related to health, health care, and public health cover topics as diverse as moral issues around reproduction, state obligations in the provision of health care services, and appropriate measures to control infectious disease. Scholars and health care professionals have debated ethical questions related to health and health care since the earliest days of medicine. Recent formal efforts to articulate international standards of ethics applicable to health and health care can be traced to the Nuremberg trials of 1947, during which the horrors of Nazi medical experiments came to light.

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Contact

Health Ethics & Governance Unit
Research for Health Department
Division of the Chief Scientist 
World Health Organization
20, Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Genève 27
Switzerland ct_ethics@who.int