Established on 1 July 2017, the Departments of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs Human Research Ethics Committee (DDVA HREC) is the institutional ethics committee for Defence and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The DDVA HREC is registered with:
- the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (EC00460)
- the Office for Human Research Protections in the United States as an Institutional Review Board (IORG0007579).
After World War II, there was concern around the world about unethical human experimentation. This led to the World Medical Association developing the Declaration of Helsinki. The declaration was first adopted in 1964 and provides a set of ethical principles to guide medical research involving humans as participants. This declaration has since been established as a cornerstone guideline in the ethical standards of researchers conducting human experiments.
Human Research Ethics Committees play a central role in facilitating ethical research. The DDVA HREC follows the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, the National Statement, and other relevant human research guidelines, policies and legislative instruments. The purpose, scope of responsibility, relationship to other processes of research review, and categories of membership are outlined in the DDVA HREC Terms of Reference.