The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has published a new data resource designed to provide more efficient and secure authentication of traveller health certificates, including Covid-19 vaccination and test result data.
The United Nations agency has unveiled the Health Master List, which is a global directory of “public key” certificates signed by ICAO.
It is available through the ICAO website and will be updated as more health certificates are issued. A public key enables third parties to verify that a health document is authentic and valid.
ICAO secretary general Juan Carlos Salazar said: “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.
“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 travellers’ health documents.”
ICAO is accepting submissions of public key certificates for health status documents currently used for international travel from its 193 member states, irrespective of the document’s format or existing systems used for authentication.
There is no cost, and all public key certificates submitted will be verified before inclusion in the list, following strict procedures similar to those established for ICAO’s Public Key Infrastructure.
“The Health Master List concept is based on the same principals as the generic ICAO Master List now used to verify electronic travel documents,” added Salazar.
“It will complement existing national and/or regional solutions and provide an essential international mechanism for sharing public key certificates in line with [World Health Organization] recommendations.”
The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) has backed the creation of the directory.
“For international travel today, it is critical that Covid-19 health passes can be efficiently verified outside of their country of issuance,” said IATA director general Willie Walsh.
IATA will participate in a pilot project linked to the ICAO Health Master List, in which private sector providers of solutions used by governments to verify health credentials will be able to access these keys.
This will help facilitate the broadest coverage of health certificates as international travel ramps up, according to IATA, which will be supporting the deployment of its own IATA Travel Pass.