IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001320070

The Human Rights Paradox: Intellectual Property Rights and Rights of Access to Science (2013)

Plomer, Aurora (Author)

Human Rights Quarterly
Volume: 35
Pages: 143--175
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Science and society Science and ethics Public policy Human rights Intellectual property International relations 20th century France South America United States Great Britain

The right of everyone to share in the benefits of science has been enshrined in human rights instruments since the last century, originally in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and subsequently in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The right was generally perceived as "obscure" and its interpretation widely neglected until the expansion of the international intellectual property (IP) regime under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) prompted an upsurge of legal scholarship and reports from international organizations seeking to address the "human rights paradox." The paradox is claimed to arise from the juxtaposition in human rights instruments of individual rights over intellectual creations against the rights of everyone to "share in scientific advancement and its benefits." This article draws on archived documentation to show that the paradox rests on a conceptual obfuscation of human rights and IP rights and is at odds both with the historical record on the aims of the drafters of the UDHR and the philosophical and legal foundations of human rights and IP rights. The drafting history of Article 27 shows that delegations from South American socialist countries backed the French initiative to include rights of authors and inventors to the protection of their intellectual creations, while the US, UK, and former Anglo-Saxon colonies opposed the proposal to the very end. Yet, behind the paradoxical political alignments there are important areas of convergence on the underlying philosophies and moral rationales which led to the adoption of Article 27 of the UDHR.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB001320070

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Elisabetta Bini; Elisabetta Vezzosi; (2020)
Scienziati e guerra fredda: Tra collaborazione e diritti umani (/p/isis/citation/CBB957549150/)

Chapter Elisabetta Vezzosi; (2020)
«International inter-changes for the benefit of all mankind». Scienziati statunitensi allo Scientific Forum di Amburgo (1980) (/p/isis/citation/CBB056972908/)

Article Biddle, Justin B.; (2014)
Can Patents Prohibit Research? On the Social Epistemology of Patenting and Licensing in Science (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320767/)

Chapter Ilaria Zamburlini; (2020)
Scienziati sovietici e diritti umani. Il dialogo transatlantico dopo Helsinki (1975-1979) (/p/isis/citation/CBB159506658/)

Book Dommann, Monika; (2014)
Autoren und Apparate: die Geschichte des Copyrights im Medienwandel (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551280/)

Book Dommann, Monika; (2019)
Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright (/p/isis/citation/CBB215324510/)

Book Ash, Mitchell G.; Stifter, Christian; (2002)
Wissenschaft, Politik und Öffentlichkeit: Von der Wiener Moderne bis zur Gegenwart (/p/isis/citation/CBB000340154/)

Article Kristin L. Ahlberg; (2021)
“Food for Peace is a Moral Program”: The Intersection of Agricultural and Human Rights Policy during the Carter Administration (/p/isis/citation/CBB196426003/)

Book Jürgen P. Melzer; (2020)
Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation (/p/isis/citation/CBB831802710/)

Article Zachary Piso; Viorel Pâslaru; (2021)
Introduction to values and pluralism in the environmental sciences: From inferences to institutions (/p/isis/citation/CBB702377462/)

Chapter Ash, Mitchell G.; (2002)
Wissenschaft, Politik und Öffentlichkeit---Zur Einführung (/p/isis/citation/CBB000340171/)

Book Douglas, Heather E.; (2009)
Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal (/p/isis/citation/CBB001031636/)

Book Michael Cotey Morgan; (2018)
The final act: The Helsinki Accords and the transformation of the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB273653843/)

Article Laura G. Pedraza-Fariña; (2021)
The Intellectual Property Turn in Global Health: From a Property to a Human Rights View of Health (/p/isis/citation/CBB886158125/)

Article Beeson, Mark; McDonald, Matt; (2013)
The Politics of Climate Change in Australia (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320849/)

Thesis Levy, Jean Elizabeth; (2007)
Controlling the Course of Scientific Advance: The Case of Human Embryology (/p/isis/citation/CBB001560939/)

Book Jan Walmsley; (2021)
Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century: Transnational Perspectives on People, Policy, and Practice (/p/isis/citation/CBB899215958/)

Article Menicucci, Telma Maria Gonçalves; (2014)
História da reforma sanitária brasileira e do Sistema Único de Saúde: mudanças, continuidades e a agenda atual (/p/isis/citation/CBB001420709/)

Book Veit, Helen Zoe; (2013)
Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201323/)

Book Herron, John P.; (2010)
Science and the Social Good: Nature, Culture, and Community, 1865--1965 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001251422/)