TRIPS, MEDICINES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

20th century had seen the growth of two legal regimes namely Trade and Human rights. These regimes had grown in complete isolation, and therefore had always been in conflict with each other. Over the past decade, popular trade agreements between developed and developing countries have time and again come under the scrutiny of human rights activists, as they proclaimed, that the trade negotiations which took place between these countries led to human rights violations in a huge manner, common examples of the same were inaccessibility to antiretroviral drugs in Africa, and patented drugs used to treat Ebola, malaria, schizophrenia, cancer etc. Based on the same, this paper is an attempt towards bringing to the forefront the most discussed and debated topics of all times which is the relationship between trade and human rights in the purview of how developed countries are using TRIPS to make stringent patent laws, which has made life saving drugs unaffordable for the poor and needy in Africa, and other underdeveloped and developing countries, thereby denying them medical care which is nothing but denial of right to life.