Joint Appeal for Open Science UNESCO, WHO, HCHR, CERN

On October 27, a joint appeal for open science will be launched by UNESCO, WHO, CERN and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Through this appeal, the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) will call on the international community to take all necessary measures to enable universal access to scientific progress and its applications.

The open science movement aims to make science more accessible, more transparent and thereby more effective. A crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the urgent need to strengthen scientific cooperation and ensure the fundamental right to universal access to scientific progress and its applications. “Open Science” is about free access to scientific publications, data and infrastructure, as well as open software, open educational resources and open technologies such as tests or vaccines. Open science also promotes trust in science, at a time when rumours and false information abound.