Anticipation under the human right to science (HRS): sketching the public institutional framework. The example of scientific responses to the appearance of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

ABSTRACT This contribution sketches the domestic and international institutional framework that states shall set up to implement their anticipation duties flowing from the HRS and, at the same time, enable international organisations to comply with their anticipation responsibilities for the HRS. Building on the understanding of science as a communal and open-ended endeavour of knowledge seeking in which everyone has an equal right to participate, to benefit from and to be protected against harm arising from it, it elaborates on states’ duties under the HRS to anticipate both the (opportunities for) benefits and the (risks of) harm of science, and to promote the former and protect against the latter with due diligence. It then argues that the HRS requires domestic and international institutions working along egalitarian lines and allowing for broad participation to (co-)specify domestic anticipation duties and coordinate their implementation in context. This is essential due to the global nature of many harms and benefits of science and its communal character. The example of the scientific response to SARS-CoV-2 is used to highlight that the current domestic and international institutional framework has, however, serious shortcomings.