The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (the Oviedo Convention) and its additional protocols
The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine is a key international agreement of the Council of Europe. The Convention establishes minimum standards for respecting human rights within the biomedicine field and is supplemented by additional protocols covering specific topic areas.
The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (which is also known as the Oviedo Convention) was approved by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on 19 November 1996, was opened for signature on 4 April 1997 and entered into effect on 1 December 1999.
Along with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine can be considered one of the most important of the 177 agreements that the Council of Europe has concluded.
The Convention is the first separate international agreement to establish binding legal rules and provisions for the biomedicine field. Other international tools on medical issues such as the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki of 1964/2000 on ethical principles for medical research involving human participants limit themselves to declarations or recommendations of a non-binding nature.
The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine is designed to protect the dignity and identity of all human beings and to guarantee everyone, without discrimination, respect for their integrity and other rights and fundamental freedoms with regard to the application of biology and medicine. The Convention aims to ensure that certain minimum standards are maintained and observed in the biomedicine field, while not limiting the ability of any of its signatory states to provide further protection extending beyond such minimum requirements.
The Convention’s specific provisions address in particular people’s consent to interventions in the health field, the protection of their private life, the human genome, scientific research, the removal of organs and tissue from living donors for transplantation purposes and the prohibition of the use of the human body or parts thereof for financial gain.
Ratification of the Convention
Four additional protocols to the Convention have been ratified by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to date, covering the prohibition of cloning human beings, the transplantation of organs and tissues, biomedical research and genetic testing. The Council of Europe has also issued three further recommendations, on human biological material, on end-of-life decisions and on persons with mental health issues.
Switzerland ratified the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and its additional protocol on the prohibition of cloning human beings on 24 July 2008 and brought these into effect on 1 November 2008.
Further information
Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Schwarzenburgstrasse 157
Switzerland - 3003 Bern