Subject: Nomination of technical focal points for the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) technical guidance deep dive consultation session
From: "europca" <[email-masked]>
To: "europca" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "ICVP" <[email-masked]>, "EURO IHR Admin" <[email-masked]>, "WHO/EURO Data, Metrics and Analytics" <[email-masked]>, "NOVILLO ORTIZ, David" <[email-masked]>, "SCHMIDT, Tanja" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:51:30 +0300

Tähelepanu! Tegemist on välisvõrgust saabunud kirjaga.
Tundmatu saatja korral palume linke ja faile mitte avada.

Russian version will follow shortly

Dear national counterparts,

As part of the consultative process with States Parties pursuant to new 
paragraph 4 of Article 35 of the International Health Regulations (2005), 
and as referenced in Circular Letter C.L.34.2025 (17 November 2025), the 
World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat is undertaking the development 
of technical guidance, including specifications or standards related to the 
issuance and ascertainment of authenticity of health documents, both in 
digital and non-digital formats, focusing on the International Certificate 
of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP).

In this context, WHO will convene virtual deep-dive sessions with States 
Parties on Wednesday, 5 August 2026 – one from 8.00 to 10.00 CEST and 
another from 15.00 to 17.00 CEST – to accommodate different time zones.

The deep dive sessions will support a detailed review of the draft technical 
guidance (policy) and the draft technical specifications and standards 
package (IT) and will provide States Parties with the opportunity to share 
their initial feedback and, thus, inform the further development of those 
documents. Following these sessions, the draft technical guidance and 
specifications will be shared with States Parties for further review and 
detailed feedback.

The deep-dive sessions will have the following objectives:

*	To provide an overview and an in-depth presentation of the draft technical 
guidance (policy), including formats of the ICVP and models in use, 
practical considerations for travellers, criteria and procedures to 
ascertain validity and authenticity, and public health actions when invalid 
or non-authentic ICVPs are identified.

*	To provide an overview and an in-depth presentation of the draft technical 
specifications and standards package (IT), including specifications and 
standards related to the issuance and ascertainment of validity and 
authenticity of ICVP in digital format, the ICVP implementation guide, and 
the Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN) and related trust 
framework.

The deep-dive sessions will be conducted in English, with AI-powered 
translation support available in the six official languages (French, 
Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian).

In view of the topics to be discussed in the afore-mentioned sessions, and 
to ensure continuity in the States Parties participation throughout the 
consultative process – expected to conclude by the end of 2026 – we kindly 
request the nomination of up to three Government officials from each State 
Party, representing the following areas:

1.	International Health Regulations (IHR)
2.	Border health / points of entry
3.	Digital health

We would be grateful if nominations could be shared with the WHO Secretariat 
by email to ICVP  <mailto:[email-masked]> [email-masked] copying 
<mailto:[email-masked]> [email-masked] and 
<mailto:[email-masked]> [email-masked]

To support the nomination process, we are including the national 
International Health Regulations (IHR) focal points, national IHR 
authorities and the focal points of the Member States Working Group on 
artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health in this email.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Health Security Division

WHO Europe