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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Lisa Forman, MA, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 25 Bedford Road Apt 504, Toronto, ON M5R 2K1, Canada, 1-416-515-7275, lisa.forman@utoronto.ca

International trade rules increasingly limit government policy options for accessing affordable essential medicines. These standards are not simply those imposed under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), but include increasingly ‘TRIPS-plus' intellectual property rules in bilateral and regional free trade agreements. International human rights law however, promotes the view that access to essential medicines is a core obligation under the right to health and that this requires governments to modify trade rules to ensure that access to medicines is not unduly limited.

In practice, human rights experts argue that this requires greater use of the limited flexibilities that international trade law provides, such as compulsory licensing and parallel imports. In addition, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health has proposed the development of a right to health impact assessment mechanism (RTHIAM), whereby the health impact of potential trade rules on access to medicines can be assessed and modified accordingly.

This presentation will both explore the human rights approach to trade law related to medicine, and outline possible approaches to developing a RTHIAM. This research is drawn both from a doctoral dissertation on international human rights law relating to AIDS medicines, as well as a research fellowship exploring the development of a RTHIAM for trade rules relating to essential medicines.

Learning Objectives:

• To enable participants to understand the content and relevance of international human rights standards relating to medicines.
• To present a practical tool in development that seeks to ensure that these standards are taken account of in national trade law and policies.
• To seek commentary and discussion of the methodology.

Keywords: Medicine, Human Rights

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation