Enhancing the right to science
- INTERFACE
- Jul 9, 2024
- 1 min read
Check out our recent editorial and a special issue dedicated to this rapidly evolving field of human rights standards and practice.
Introduction: the right to science and sustainability challenges of our times
Enhancing the right to science is increasingly recognized as a central piece in the multi-facetted puzzle of solving the triple planetary crisis. Its role as a cross-cutting catalyst in relation to other human rights dimensions of major global challenges from pandemics, biodiversity, toxics to climate change, calls for far more comprehensive attention to the bundle of rights linking science, scientists and scientific practice to contemporary sustainability responses. The global handling of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated with all clarity the added value of leveraging the right to the benefits of science to advance the right to health agenda, reshaping the governance of intellectual property rights and fostering access to life-saving technologies. Countering challenges such as uneven vaccine distribution and access to health services that are tied to deep-running inequalities across and within countries requires the transformation of the entire science ecosystem. This is precisely where the right to science can be instrumental.
To access the editorial co-authored with Konstantinos Tararas:
See also discussions from 2023 Social Forum / Human Rights Council event.
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