(Download) "Trade Rules, Intellectual Property, And the Right to Health (Essay)" by Ethics & International Affairs # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Trade Rules, Intellectual Property, And the Right to Health (Essay)
- Author : Ethics & International Affairs
- Release Date : January 01, 2007
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 295 KB
Description
While the inaccessibility of lifesaving medicines in developing countries has long presented a grave international health problem, current trade rules perpetuate and exacerbate this dilemma. I argue that by restricting access to essential medicines, trade rules violate core human rights to minimally adequate health care. Medicines are not simply commercial commodities, but basic human needs, fundamental human rights entitlements, and critical components of health care systems. Given the potential loss of life that such restrictions entail, the legitimacy and justification for trade-related intellectual property rules on medicines should be assessed not only in terms of trade law and intellectual property rights, but from the perspective of human rights standards. These standards require that international trade rules on medicines be justified to the fullest extent possible, and permitted only to the extent to which they can be justified. I argue further that human rights standards may offer practical tools for challenging and even reforming trade rules on medicines. GLOBAL ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL MEDICINES