The Health Ethics and Governance Unit provides a focal point for the examination of ethical issues raised by activities throughout the Organization. The unit also supports Member States in addressing ethical issues that arise in their own countries. This includes a range of global bioethics topics from public health surveillance to developments in genomics, and from research with human beings to fair access to health services.

This unit’s work is particularly important in the context of contemporary health challenges and raises and addresses difficult questions in areas such as resource allocation, new technologies, decision-making in clinical care and public health.

Our activities

Developing normative guidance

The unit develops guidance for policymakers and government on a diverse range of bioethics issues including patient safety, epidemic response and vaccine research.

Producing ethics tools and resources

The unit produces resources for national and local ethics committees which suggest practical ways on how to resolve common ethical issues.

Capacity building

The unit conducts and coordinates training for Member States on public health ethics and research ethics.

Ethical Oversight of WHO’s research projects

The unit hosts the secretariat of WHO’s Research Ethics Review Committee which ensures all research supported by WHO is conducted to the highest ethical standards.

Ethics advice on WHO’s public health interventions

The unit hosts the secretariat of WHO’s Public Health Ethics Consultative Group, which offers WHO staff members a voluntary, non-binding ethics review mechanism for non-research, public health interventions.

International leadership

The unit hosts the secretariat of the biennial  Global Summit of National Ethics/Bioethics Committees, a forum for national bioethics advisory bodies which discusses and develops consensus on ethical guidance.

The unit hosts the  Global Network of Collaborating Centres. This valuable resource facilitates research, advises WHO and strengthens capacity for work on ethics at a regional and national level.

    Our team

    Maria Magdalena Guraiib

    Katherine Littler

    Andreas Alois Reis

    QAs

    Ethics in public health surveillance

    Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Ethics, resource allocation and priority setting

    Human Genome Editing Registry

    Ethics and health programme for interns and volunteers

    We coordinate a very active internship programme in WHO Headquarters and welcomes applications from graduate students from a wide range of disciplines as well as researchers, national civil servants and other professionals. Applications from scholars/academics and professionals not currently enrolled into degree programmes who wish to contribute to the work of the team will also be considered for a volunteer position under terms and conditions similar to internships.

    Internships with the Unit provide an excellent opportunity to participate in the work of the Organization and to expand the knowledge and understanding of WHO's goals, policies and activities.


    Contact us

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