Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

UNESCO’s Recommendation on Neurotechnology: realizing the rights of people with mental disabilities

Nature Mental Health volume 3, page 749 (2025) Cite this article

Subjects

In May 2025, more than 190 member states of UNESCO convened in Paris for final negotiations on the first global governance instrument for neurotechnologies. The ‘Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology’ aims to address ethical and human-rights concerns raised by these technologies, which are increasingly used in diagnosing and treating mental-health conditions. After reviewing publicly available drafts, we wish to draw attention to a critical shortcoming that states should address in its implementation: the Recommendation does not seem well aligned with disability rights as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and threatens to fall behind them. Given that persons with disabilities are among the primary users of neurotechnologies, we wish to note some desiderata.

One of the main intellectual achievements of the CRPD is a shift in perspective from conceiving disability merely in the categories of defect and deficiency to one that emphasizes diversity and acknowledges social factors that contribute to impairments. A human-rights-based framework, especially from UNESCO, should reflect and promote this perspective, as existing societal and policy discourse around neurotechnology is often imbued with the ‘fixing paradigm’. Furthermore, the historically complex relationship between disability and neurotechnologies, especially in mental health, should be recalled when making new regulations in this field: coercive electroshocks and early experiments with deep brain stimulation in psychiatric patients1 illustrate neurotechnology’s dark history. An ethical future is better built on collectively acknowledging and denouncing the past.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Baumeister, A. J. Hist. Neurosci. 9, 262–278 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Angrick, M. et al. Sci. Rep. 14, 9617 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Owen, A. M. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64, 109–133 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fins, J. J. Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics, and the Struggle for Consciousness (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015).

Download references

Acknowledgements

C.B., F.B., M.S.N. and P.K. contributed equally to writing and conceptualization. The authors are members of the international research group on neurotechnologies and disabilities PRIVETDIS, funded by ERA-NET Neuron.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Christoph Bublitz

  2. University Carlos III of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco Bariffi

  3. University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Marta Sosa Navarro

  4. University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Philipp Kellmeyer

Authors
  1. Christoph Bublitz
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Francisco Bariffi
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marta Sosa Navarro
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Philipp Kellmeyer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Bublitz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bublitz, C., Bariffi, F., Sosa Navarro, M. et al. UNESCO’s Recommendation on Neurotechnology: realizing the rights of people with mental disabilities. Nat. Mental Health 3, 749 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00454-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00454-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing