Certain issues of the relationship between intellectual property rights and human rights in international legal aspects

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship between intellectual property rights and human rights in the context of international treaties,in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.Based on the relevant articles of these documents provided for the right of everyone to benefit from the protection of the moral andmaterial interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author as well as on the specific featuresof human rights, the nature of intellectual rights and their intersection with human rights are analysed.The article devotes considerable attention to various international bodies’ views on the question at hand. In one of the most importantdocuments on the issue, General Comment No. 17, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights contrasts humanrights with intellectual property rights. It is noted that the former are fundamental, inalienable and universal entitlements belonging toindividuals, and the latter are generally of a temporary nature, and can be revoked, licensed or assigned to someone else. At the sametime, the UN Committee interpreted the author’s moral rights of attribution and integrity of his work to form part of the moral interestsreferred to in human rights law.The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Farida Shaheed generally concurred with the position of the Committee.However, she stressed the importance of looking beyond moral rights already recognized in copyright regimes to discern additional orstronger moral interests from a human rights standpoint so as to prevent the moral interests of authors from being under-protected. TheSpecial Rapporteur acknowledges that the moral rights of inventors and scientific discoverers are also protected as human rights.In respect to material interests, a limited number of property rights of authors can be recognized as human rights. As both the UNCommittee and the Special Rapporteur agreed, the material interests of authors are linked to an adequate standard of living which canbe achieved through one-time payments or by vesting an author, for a limited period of time, with the exclusive right to exploit his scientific,literary or artistic production.Hence, considering the provisions of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights, the creator’s moral rights of attribution and integrity of his work as well as his resale right and right to remunerationcan be considered as human rights.