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Porsdam, Helle; Mann, Matthias --- "The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications – Report 2012 (A/HRC/20/26)" [2017] ELECD 1428; in Belder, Lucky; Porsdam, Helle (eds), "Negotiating Cultural Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 79

Book Title: Negotiating Cultural Rights

Editor(s): Belder, Lucky; Porsdam, Helle

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786435415

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications – Report 2012 (A/HRC/20/26)

Author(s): Porsdam, Helle; Mann, Matthias

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

‘Addressing science through a human rights lens is both novel and potentially significant,’ wrote Audrey Chapman and Jessica Wyndham in the journal Science in 2013. Both Chapman and Wyndham have attempted to draw the attention of scientists as well as the general public to this particular corner of human rights for many years, but what prompted their Science article was the publication in May 2012 of Farida Shaheed’s report, ‘The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications’ (hereafter ‘The right to science’). ‘The right to science’ was Shaheed’s third thematic report. It followed closely after her first report on ‘Implementing cultural rights’ in 2010 and her 2011 report on ‘Access to cultural heritage,’ both dealing with core issues relating to the very implementation of and access to culture and cultural heritage. This shows the importance of ‘the right to science’ – its high priority on the list of ‘Issues in focus’ that Shaheed (and the experts who advised her) put together upon becoming the first UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. Shaheed starts her third thematic report, which grew out of a series of seminars and meetings, by stressing the strong link between the right to science and other human rights, especially the right to participate in cultural life.