In 1999 the World Medical Association (WMA) issued a declaration recommending that there be the teaching of medical ethics and human rights included in the basic medical school curricula across Europe. The study aims to investigate the level of medical ethics and human rights training provided and to take an inventory of the existing programmes in the European Union's medical schools. The study was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire which was disseminated in the year 2002 to 219 schools of medicine in 14 of the 15 European Union member states (Luxembourg did not yet have a school of medicine). One-fourth of the medical schools solicited sent back a reply. Medical ethics are taught in 93% of medical schools; its teaching is of a multi-disciplinary and cross-cutting nature in 80% of the schools. Courses on ethics are compulsory in 75% of the cases. Human rights are taught in 63% of the European medical schools, and it is most often the case that the teaching of human rights is incorporated into the ethics courses. Even if the WMA's recommendation is not always fully implemented according to the guidelines of their declaration, this study demonstrates and reveals nonetheless the increasing of awareness and realization by European medical schools of the significance of including such a track in their programme.