Terms & Conditions

Introduction to the Decide – Health Decision Hub Web portal

Thanks for using the Decide Web portal (“Web portal”). The Web portal is maintained by the Decide – Health Decision Hub Facilitator, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), 20 avenue Appia, CH1211 – Geneva, Switzerland.

By using the Web portal Services, users agree to these terms. Please read them hereunder.

Use and Copyright of Materials, publications and comments published on the Decide Web portal

The responsibility for opinions expressed in any format and on any media whasoever herein rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the Decide of the opinions expressed in them.

The information in the various pages of the Web portal is issued by the Decide for general or restricted distribution. The information presented is protected under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literature and Artistic works, under other international conventions and under national laws on copyright and neighbouring rights. Extracts of the information in the web site may be reviewed, reproduced or translated for research or private study but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes.

Any use of information in the web site should be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the Decide Web portal as well as the publishing organization and/or the author of the publication as the source, citing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the article. Reproduction or translation of substantial portions of the Web portal, or any use is deemed prohibited and requires explicit, prior authorization from the Decide Hub in writing. Applications and enquiries should be addressed to the Decide Manager.

The designations employed herein, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the Decide Network concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers, nor any expression of any opinion relating to a concept, idea, products or services developed by its member organisations or third-parties.

While care has been taken in the preparation and reproduction of the data published herein, the PDeci declines liability for any inaccuracy, omission or other error in the data, and, in general, for any financial or other loss or damage in any way resulting from the use of contents published on this Web portal.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the Decide Hub in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

The Decide Hub does not warrant that the information contained in the Web portal is complete and correct and shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages incurred as a result of its use.

Use of Services on the Decide Web portal

Users hereby agree to follow any policies made available to users within the Decide Web Portal Services (“the Services”). Users hereby agree to use the Services only as permitted by law, including applicable export and control laws and regulations. The Decide Hub will suspend or stop providing the Services if users do not comply with terms or policies or is investigating suspected misconduct.

Use of the Decide Hub Web portal Services does not give users ownership of any intellectual property rights of any material whatsoever published on the Web portal or of the content that users access. Users may not reproduce content from the Web portal unless users obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. These terms do not grant users the right to use any branding or logos used in our Services. Users must not remove, obscure or alter any legal notices displayed in or along with our Services.

Some of the Services allow users to upload, submit, store, send or receive content that users and/or the organization they are contractually linked to retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that is held in that content. Uploaded content through the Web portal allows the Decide Hub a worldwide license to use, store, display and distribute this content for non-profit uses only, within the boundaries of the mandate operated by the Decide Hub.

The Decide Hub Web portal may display some content that produced and published by registered users. This content is the sole responsibility of the user and/or entity that makes it available. The Decide Hub reserves the right to review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates set policies, and reserves the right to remove or refuse to display content that can be reasonably believed to violate set policies or laws and regulations.

In connection with the use of the Services, the Decide Hub may send users service announcements, administrative messages and other information such as newsletters. Users may opt out of some of those communications.

The Decide Hub Web Portal Services are available on mobile devices. Users must not use such Services in a way that distracts them and prevents them from obeying traffic or safety laws. The Decide Hub cannot be held responsible for any accident resulting from any such distraction while users consulted any content of any kind published on the Decide Web platform.

Use of a Decide Hub Web portal account

In order to use the Services users will need to register and subsequently log in onto the restricted area of the Decide Hub Web Portal. Alternatively users may register with their social media account (limited to the use of Facebook®, LinkedIn® or Twitter® accounts) in order to use some of the Services, and will be prompted upon first registration to provide complementary information that are mandatory to create a personal account.

To protect users’ personal accounts, users are strongly encouraged to keep their password confidential. Users are responsible for the activity that happens on or through their personal account. Users ought to try and not reuse their personal account password on third-party applications. If users learn of any unauthorised use of their password or personal account, they ought to contact the Decide Hub Manager.

Registered users agree to respect the rules of this Web portal. Accounts are registered under the users’ real names and depiction of users’ roles, titles and affiliation must be accurate and not subject to misrepresentation.

Registered users will refrain from any commercial use of their account and will not solicit and/or promote any commercial services they could profit of. The Decide Hub follows a strict not-for-profit objective and cannot condone commercial, trade or monetary-motivated purpose whatsoever on its Web platform.

Registered users agree to use their account in a professional, respectful and reasonable manner at all times, in all their interactions on the Web platform. The Decide Hub will reserves the right to terminate any user’s account without prior notice in case of infringement of whole or part of the present Terms & Conditions.

Termination of the Services

Users can stop using the Services at any time and delete their personal account. The Services provided do not create benefit rights to its users or third-party and can be discontinued without any loss nor damages whatsoever for users or third-parties. As a result, the Decide Hub cannot incur any liability for discontinuation of the Services.

The Decide Hub reserves the right to terminate any individual account at any time and without prior notice.

Warranties and Disclaimers

The Decide Hub proposes Services through the use of a Web portal which has been developed with a reasonable level of skill. However, the Decide Hub declines any responsibility for lost revenues, data, financial losses or reputational damages resulting from the use of the services herein.

Consequently, users hold the Decide Hub and its agents and employees harmless from any claim, action or proceedings arising from or related to the use of the Services or violation of these terms, including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgements, litigation costs and legal fees.

Unilateral modification of these Terms & Conditions

The Decide Hub reserves the right to modify these terms or any additional terms that apply to the use of the Web portal, for example, to reflect changes to the law or changes to the Services. Users will be informed of any notice of modifications to these terms.

Changes will not apply retrospectively but will become effective immediately. In the event where a user does not agree to the modified terms for the Services, the use of the Services should be discontinued.

If there is any inconsistency between these terms and the additional terms, the additional terms will prevail to the extent of the inconsistency. In the event where a particular term is not enforceable on legal grounds, this will not affect any other terms whatsoever.

Decide Hub Web portal Privacy Policy

The Decide Hubs Web portal uses cookies and technological means provided by a third-party to store and use data that are necessary to operate the Services. No other use is made of the data, and the data are not passed on to third parties.

Every time users visit a page on the Web portal and every time a file is downloaded, information about the activity is processed and stored in a temporary protocol file. Before it is stored, each data set is rendered anonymous by altering the IP address.

The following information is stored for each page viewed and each file downloaded:

Technical details of the browser used
Anonymous IP address
Date and time
Page opened/name of the file downloaded
Quantity of data transferred
Notification of whether viewing or download was successful

Temporary session cookies are used each time users view an individual page, to make navigation easier. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in their browser cache. Session cookies do not include any personal data and expire at the end of each session, or after the completion of a user survey, which is conducted as a rule every two years. The Decide Hub Web portal does not use methods that make it possible to track users’ browsing behaviours.

Any personal details collected as part of the press mailing list subscription will only be used for the purpose of processing the subscription and dealing with users’ enquiries. Users’ details will not be passed onto third parties. No use will be made of details for consulting purposes, for advertising or for market research. In the event where a user cancels his/her subscription and/or his/her personal account, all personal details will be deleted from the Web portal database.

Postal addresses and email addresses provided by users are used exclusively for correspondence or delivery purposes.

Links with external websites

The Web portal contains links to external sites. Responsibility for the content of the external sites linked to this website always lies with their respective publishers. If the Decide Hub becomes aware or is notified by a third party that a linked external site gives rise to civil or criminal liability, it will remove the link to this site immediately. The Decide Hub expressly dissociates itself from such content.

Links to the Decide Hub Web portal may be created, provided that the Decide Hub Web portal opened is then the sole content of the browser window.

For any information, please contact the Decide Hub Facilitator:

Gwenaël Dhaene, PhD, LLM, LLB

Health Systems Adviser

Decide Hub Facilitator

Health Systems Governance and Financing Department

World Health Organization

20 Avenue Appia – CH1211 Geneva 27

E: dhaeneg@who.int