International legal means of protecting human rights in health emergencies

Abstract

The subject of the study is international legal norms, documents of international organizations (of a recommendatory and binding nature), as well as acts of domestic law establishing guarantees for ensuring the human right to health and the right to use the results of scientific progress, as well as forming international legal mechanisms for the protection of intellectual property and technology transfer. The object of the study is public relations arising from the interaction of various subjects of international relations in the framework of countering emergencies in the field of health protection and ensuring equitable access to healthcare technologies in all regions of the world, regardless of the level of development of the pharmaceutical industry. The purpose of the study is to develop proposals for the introduction of international legal means aimed at ensuring the human right to health in the framework of achieving a balance of public and private legal guarantees of access to healthcare technologies. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods of cognition, including formal logical and situational, and private legal methods such as comparative-legal, historical-legal and formal-legal. The past decades have been accompanied by rapid rates of emergency situations in the field of public health, which have demonstrated systemic problems in the organization of medical care in each State, as well as revealing imperfections in international legal regulation of the field of health protection. Healthcare technologies, which determine the effectiveness of countering any large-scale threat of an infectious and non-infectious nature, in the vast majority of cases are developed by non-State actors, the main purpose of whose activities is legitimately to make a profit. At the same time, the obligation to ensure the right to the highest attainable standard of health and access to health technologies rests with the State, which forms stable barriers to ensuring a balance of public and private legal guarantees in the field of health protection. The paper presents a list of the main problems of international legal response to emergencies of international importance. The article consistently reveals the main international legal means of ensuring the transfer of healthcare technologies. The authors have formulated a number of practical recommendations aimed at expanding access to healthcare technologies.