Papadopoulou, Frantzeska --- "TRIPS and Human Rights" [2011] ELECD 207; in Kur, Annette (ed), "Intellectual Property Rights in a Fair World Trade System" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Intellectual Property Rights in a Fair World Trade System

Editor(s): Kur, Annette

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800099

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: TRIPS and Human Rights

Author(s): Papadopoulou, Frantzeska

Number of pages: 46

Extract:

6. TRIPS and human rights
Frantzeska Papadopoulou*

1. INTRODUCTION

Though the trajectories between human rights and Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) have often been discussed,1 their relationship remains
unclear.2 This concerns the IPR/human rights interface in general, but also
and in particular the way in which the two systems interact in the context
of international trade law. Whereas in principle, the objectives underly-
ing IPR and human rights appear as reconcilable or even as congruent
to some extent,3 a sceptical to fully negative view prevails on the WTO/
TRIPS Agreement. The report of the UN Commission on Human Rights
goes as far as to state that the WTO is "a veritable nightmare" for certain
sectors of humanity,4 in that TRIPS in some ways encourages, indirectly
leads to or has as a side-effect human rights violations.5 Others posit that
human rights principles are also fundamental for the WTO Agreement,
meaning that human rights violations automatically constitute violations



* This chapter was substantially revised and partly re-written by Annette
Kur. Thanks also to Felix Trumpke for his valuable assistance.
1 The literature on the topic is very rich and cannot be fully referenced here.

For an overview, see e.g. Yu (2007). See also Okediji (2007).
2 Helfer (2003) at 47.
3 See e.g. Geiger (2006) at 371, 372; same author (2008) at 101 et seq.
4 UN ­ ECOSOC (2000), at para.15: "Since the implementation of the TRIPS

Agreement does not adequately reflect the ...