The Council of Europe has adopted a new ‘Strategic Plan 2026-2030 for Human Rights in Biomedicine and Health’, which aims to protect human dignity, fundamental rights and ethical standards in a context marked by rapid developments related to AI, genomics, neurotechnologies and synthetic biology.
This ‘Plan’ is based on four pillars: safeguard, adapt, anticipate and engage.
Safeguard by focusing on strengthening the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (‘Oviedo Convention’).
Adapt existing legal instruments to a rapidly evolving biomedical landscape to incorporate principles such as autonomy, privacy and personal integrity into digital health governance.
Anticipate emerging ethical and human rights challenges.
Engage other players in order to deepen cooperation at both Council of Europe and international levels.
This new ‘roadmap’ also highlights the need to strengthen resilience in the face of disinformation and other threats to democratic integrity in the health sectors.
It was drawn up in consultation with human rights institutions, national ethics bodies, academics, political decision-makers, civil society representatives and a member of the Advisory Council on Youth.
Link to the new ‘Strategic Plan’: https://aeur.eu/f/l17 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)