Public Health at Risk

Even though the world faces the threat of potential new epidemics like avian influenza, the effects of trade rules on public health attract little attention. Governments recently reaffirmed their commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals which include combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases, yet little attention is given to the implications of United States Free Trade Agreements (US FTAs) with developing countries such as Thailand, for access to affordable medicines to treat those diseases. These FTAs do much more than regulate tariffs for cross-border trade in goods and services: they change the rules of intellectual property protection in ways that will undermine public health by limiting access to affordable medicines.

Intellectual property rights with regard to medicines can come
into conflict with other rights, notably the right to health. The right to
health has been recognized as a fundamental human right, and is
enshrined in a number of treaties, including the Constitution of the
World Health Organization, the United Nations Charter, 32 the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights, 33 and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child. 34 The most important human rights instrument
that explicitly recognizes the right to health is the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article
12 of the ICESCR creates a legally binding right to health, and Article
2 imposes legal obligations on all States parties to co-operate
internationally to realize this right.
The right to health was defined as ‘a right to the enjoyment of a
variety of facilities, goods, services and conditions necessary for the
realization of the highest attainable standard of health.’ This includes
‘a system of urgent medical care in cases of accidents, epidemics and
similar health hazards,’ as well as ‘the provision of essential drugs’ for
prevalent diseases.


Source: Public Health at Risk, www.Oxfam.org.uk