The UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (1998
The UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights
(1998) and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights(2003) are
other instances of texts with clear overlap between bioethics and human rights
(Nys, 2005). The former pronounces that the human genome symbolically represents part of the common heritage of humanity, while forbidding practices contrary
to human dignity, such as human reproductive cloning. The latter instrument, though
also nonbinding under international law, arguably provides, if not a codification,
then a promotion of bioethical norms onto the global normative stage. Particularly
important are norms of technology transfer and social responsibility in relation
to essential medicines that specifically apply to corporations (Faunce, 2007).
Article 14(2) of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights provides:
Taking into account that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of
the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political
belief, and economic, or social condition, progress in science and technology should
advance:
472 T. Faunce
(a) Access to quality health care and essential medicines, especially for the health of
women and children, because health is essential to life itself and must be considered
to be a social and human good
(b) Access to adequate nutrition and water;
(c) Improvement of living conditions and the environment;
(d) Elimination of the marginalization and the exclusion of persons on the basis of any
grounds
(e) Reduction of poverty and illiteracy
Article 15 – sharing of benefits provides:
1. Benefits resulting from any scientific research and its applications should be shared with
society as a whole and within the international community, in particular with developing
countries. In giving effect to this principle, benefits may take any of the following forms:
(a) Special and sustainable assistance to, and acknowledgement of, the persons and
groups that have taken part in the research
(b) Access to quality health care
(c) Provision of new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities or products stemming from
research
(d) Support for health services
(e) Access to scientific and technological knowledge
(f) Capacity-building facilities for research purposes
(g) Other forms of benefit consistent with the principles set out in this Declaration
2. Benefits should not constitute improper inducements to participate in research.
