E-drug: UN Body warns of conflicts between TRIPS and Human
Rights
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WARNING: LONG MESSAGE
For more information on the work of both the UN Sub-Commission for the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and INCHRITI, please contact:
Miloon Kothari, Habitat International Coalition and INCHRITI.
Tel./Fax: 91.11.4628492; E-mail: hichrc@ndf.vsnl.net.in
Peter Prove, Lutheran World Federation and INCHRITI.
Tel: 41.22.7916364; Fax: 41.22.7988616; E-mail: pnp@lutheranworld.org
UNITED NATIONS BODY WARNS OF CONFLICTS BETWEEN
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS:
COULD INFLUENCE PATENTS FOR DRUGS, BIOTECH SEEDS
Geneva - On August 17, 2000, an important UN human rights body
unanimously adopted a resolution calling into question the impact of the
World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Agreement on Intellectual Property
Rights (known as TRIPS) on the human rights of peoples and communities,
including farmers and indigenous peoples worldwide.
The surprising resolution signals a growing concern about an
industry-driven intellectual property agreement that protects corporate
patents around the world, sometimes at the expense of national economic
and health concerns. The TRIPs agreement sets international rules to
protect patents in a whole host of sectors, but it is particularly
important for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
In the unprecedented resolution, the UN Sub-Commission for the
Protection and Promotion of Human Rights pointed out the dire
consequences on the human rights to food, health and self-determination
if the TRIPS Agreement is implemented in its current form. Reminding
governments of the primacy of human rights obligations over economic
policies and programs, the resolution states that there are "apparent
conflicts between the intellectual property rights regime embodied in
the TRIPS Agreement, on the one hand, and international human rights
law, on the other."
"This is a pathbreaking resolution in more ways than one," stated Miloon
Kothari from the International NGO Committee on Human Rights in Trade
and Investment (INCHRITI), an alliance of eight human rights coalitions
that advocated action by the Sub-Commission on TRIPS. First and
foremost this timely resolution signifies the resolve of the UN human
rights programme to monitor the work of the WTO. Basing itself on the
provisions of both the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, "this historic
resolution has affirmed the primacy of human rights and environmental
obligations over the commercial and profit driven motives upon which
agreements such as TRIPS are based." added Kothari.
According to Peter Prove of the Lutheran World Federation, a human
rights analysis of the interpretation and implementation of the TRIPS
Agreement reveals that TRIPS has skewed the balance inherent in
intellectual property law systems away from the public interest and in
favour of intellectual property rights holders. He said that, contrary
to some analyses, intellectual property rights do not have the character
of fundamental human rights, but rather of subordinate or instrumental
rights.
Simon Walker of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights noted that the TRIPS Agreement's requirement that
pharmaceuticals be patented by all WTO Members "might be appropriate
for countries with high levels of investment in medical research.
But," he
asked, "is it suitable for countries with a high level of HIV/AIDS,
malaria and tuberculosis infection that have not yet developed a
pharmaceutical research base? For these countries, access to drugs --
rather than innovation of drugs -- is the imperative. Given that there
is a link between patent protection and higher prices for
pharmaceuticals, the grant of private property rights could be
detrimental to public health -- and development in general -- in these
countries."
The UN Sub-Commission's resolution marks the beginning of what
promises to be an intense monitoring of WTO work by the UN human
rights system.The resolution asks the WTO, in general, and the
Council on TRIPS during its ongoing review of the TRIPS Agreement, in
particular, "to take fully into account the existing State
obligations under international human
rights instruments." It also asks the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
to prepare a report on the implications of the TRIPS Agreement and
options for further action by the Sub-Commission. The resolution has
also called upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other
relevant UN agencies to undertake an analysis of the human rights
impacts of the TRIPS agreement.
The resolution comes at a time of intense questioning by developing
country governments of the TRIPS Agreement and its interpretation and
implementation, and of calls by numerous national and international
civil society alliances for the TRIPS Agreement to be brought in line
with human rights and environmental imperatives.
Stressing that intellectual property rights have to serve public
benefit, and concerned by the true motives of the TRIPS agreement, the
resolution calls upon governments to integrate into their national and
local legislations and policies provisions that, in accordance with
international human rights instruments and principles, protect the
social function of intellectual property.