ICAO Unveils Health Master List To Tackle Disparity On Health Document Authentication For Travelers And Border Authorities...Asks 193 Member States To Submit Public Key Certificates For Integration

The International Civil Aviation Organisation,ICAO in order to put an end to disparities on authentication of Covid-19 related certificates such as vaccination and test results has published an instrument called Health Master List. ICAO cited that lack of trust between countries in health documents’ authentication is one of the reasons for proliferated travel restrictions around globe.   The United Nation agency said it “has published its first Health Master List, a new data resource for States and aviation stakeholders to aid in the more efficient and secure authentication of traveler health certificates, including vaccination and test result certificates.” The Montreal-based agency said the new instrument is: “In support of WHO recommendations, ICAO has embarked on an innovative Public Key Infrastructure collaboration with the Luxembourg State Agency, INCERT. The aim of the partnership is to address the urgent need for improved trust and processing of health documentation internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond.” “The presentation of documentation related to COVID-19 health interventions has become commonplace since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many States originally issued health proofs appropriate for domestic and/or regional use cases,” commented ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar. “The result was a variety of different national or regional formats being deployed, and proliferating travel restrictions due to low levels of confidence among State border, immigration and health authorities in the validity of travelers’ health documents.” The majority of health proofs issued globally, including the ICAO Visible Digital Seal for non-constrained environments (VDS-NC), include some form of digitally-signed barcode, with verification of the barcode requiring knowledge of the associated public key.  The new ICAO Health Master List is a compilation of public key certificates signed by ICAO, made publicly available through its website and regularly updated (every 3 month) as more health proofs are issued and new public keys are required. Expecting cooperation by its member states in the integration of each country’s public key certificates into the new instrument, “ICAO is welcoming submissions of public key certificates associated with any health proof that may be currently used for international travel from all of its 193 Member States, irrespective of the specific format of the proof or the existing systems used for authentication of the proof.”   No country is bearing any cost on the integration and before integration, each country’s certificate will be verified. “There is no cost associated with inclusion of a certificate on the Health Master List. All public key certificates submitted will be verified before inclusion in the list, following strict procedures similar to those established for the ICAO PKD, in order to ensure trust in the contents.” “The Health Master List concept is based on the same principles as the generic ICAO Master List now used to verify electronic travel documents,” Secretary General Salazar clarified. “It will complement existing national and/or regional solutions and provide an essential international mechanism for sharing public key certificates in line with WHO recommendations.”