The additional protocol on biomedical research increases the effectiveness of the protection of human dignity without imposing unnecessary barriers to the freedom of research. The Parliamentary Assembly welcomes this further enrichment of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. It recommends that the Committee of Ministers open it for signature as soon as possible and urges all states Signatories and Parties to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine to sign it. In this context the Assembly regrets that 28 out of the 45 member states of the Council of Europe have not yet ratified or acceded to the Bioethics Convention and urges them to do so as soon as possible.