The human right to science: An old right with a great future

Abstract

When we talk about the human right to science, many may think that we are speaking about a new right, recently created to face the challenges that science and technology generate in our society of the 21st century. However, the right to science is already enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966). We can find it even earlier in the inter-American regional system, particularly, in the Charter of the Organization of American States (1948) and in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (1948). Few know that, in fact, the Latin American countries in general and Chile in particular played a crucial role in the universal recognition of this right. The first part of the article explains the history of the right to science and its international legal recognition. In a second chapter, we will study its current institutional situation within the United Nations and, finally, in the third chapter, we will analyze the characteristics of this right, its normative content, elements and type of obligations that it creates.