The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and
World Health Organisation (WHO) organised the
ITU/WHO Workshop on “Digital Vaccination Certificate” which took
place virtually on
11 August 2021 from 13h00-18h00 CEST, Geneva time.
Current COVID-19 has illustrated the need for digital certificates including vaccination etc that could be used in an interoperable fashion across organizations. This subject is being discussed by WHO (World Health Organization). It is recognized that digital certificates should be suitable to be used by both existing and emerging systems such as those based on decentralized identity (DID). The workshop considered the use of legacy and DID systems as a vehicle for building systems that can provide proof of vaccination status for individuals.
In addition to existing systems, DID technology offers the ability to develop trust frameworks in which individuals should have easy and full control over their identity and privacy across digital services provided by federated identity, authentication, and authorization service providers.
The objectives of the workshop were, but not limited to:
-
considering various use cases for digital certificates for COVID-19 including vaccinations
- identifying challenges for implementing and federating these vaccination certificates;
- investigating potential collaboration between ITU and WHO in terms of Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates initiatives;
- sharing on-going activities among relevant technical groups and international organizations; and
- identifying ways forward or directions for ITU-T SG17/SG16/WHO to undertake in the future.
Participation in the workshop was free of charge and opened to ITU members, and anyone who wishesd to contribute to the work. Registration to the workshop was mandatory.
