Good Health Pass Collaborative lobbies G7 for universal acceptance

The Good Health Pass Collaborative, a multi-sector global initiative launched by ID2020 in February, has called on members of the G7 to work towards international agreement on standards to support the universal interoperability of digital health passes as the need for resuming normal travel in a pandemic setting becomes more urgent.

In a letter which the Collaborative addressed to the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the G7 and to leaders of guest countries of the group, India, South Africa, and South Korea, as well as the European Commission. The letter argues the need for digital health passes to be accepted by airlines and border control bodies, adding that restarting global travel will be a great step toward reviving a global economy that has been badly shattered by the pandemic, according to a press statement from ID2020.

The 47th annual G7 summit is slated for next month in the UK city of Cornwall.

The letter calls on the leaders to adopt the Good Health Pass Collaborative principles either in whole or as the basis for a joint statement of principles on digital health passes, to be included in the official summit communiqué; and also to put in place a working group of senior staff from G7 and G20 health and transport ministries with the objective of achieving standards harmonization among member nations and the European Union by July 16.

Good Health Pass Collaborative brings together more than 120 companies and organizations from across the travel, health, and technology sectors as well as all of the major solution providers with the aim of quickly streamlining a standards-setting process for travels to resume.

“The need to restore international travel is unquestionably urgent. But, there is a very real risk that digital health passes could fail to deliver the anticipated public health, social, and economic benefits if they are not widely trusted and adopted by the public and universally accepted by airlines and border control agencies. Ensuring that digital health passes adhere to a set of foundational principles – such as privacy, user-control, and inclusivity – will help build that trust and standards will enable systems around the world to work together, thus creating a convenient and seamless experience for travellers, airlines, and border control agencies,” said ID2020 Executive Director, Dakota Gruener, who spoke to Biometric Update about the initiative in March.

Good Health Pass is also set to release the Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint on May 24, which addresses in detail some of the critical challenges in eight key areas around which the movement believes global consensus must be reached in order for the digital health passes to be generally accepted. The document is to be released for public comment.

The eight areas include design principles; creating a consistent user experience; standard data models and elements; credential formats, signatures and exchange protocols; security, privacy and data protection; trust registries; and rules engines and identity binding (ensuring the authenticity of the holder, which is where biometrics will likely be involved.

The push for the adoption of digital health passes has been on with trials launched, mostly within the travel industry.

Article Topics

credentials  |  digital identity  |  G7  |  Good Health Pass Collaborative  |  health passes  |  ID2020  |  identity verification  |  interoperability  |  mobile app  |  regulation  |  standards  |  travel and tourism