14/09/2026
What we are witnessing in the PABS negotiations at the World Health Organization is fundamentally at odds with the right to science.
The right to science is not simply about a right to access scientific knowledge. It encompasses everyone's right to participate in scientific progress and to enjoy its benefits.
In the post-war debates that helped shape the right to science, there was recognition that intellectual property protections should not be permitted to create monopolies that prevent people from sharing in the benefits of scientific progress.
Nearly eighty years later, the same fundamental question is before us.
In the PABS negotiations, developing countries are being asked to provide the pathogen samples and sequence information that make scientific progress possible. Yet the European Union, Norway, Japan and Switzerland are resisting legally binding contracts at the point of access that would ensure that recipients of pathogen samples and sequences are legally bound to share benefits generated from having access to such resources.
A fair and effective PABS System must do more than facilitate access to scientific information. It must ensure that developing countries have guarantees to fair and equitable benefit sharing such as rapid access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics, licensing for rapidly scaling up production and expanding supply options — while also enabling them to build their scientific, technological and productive capacity.
When the benefits of scientific progress are shared fairly and equitable, the right to science is truly realized. The European Union, Norway, Japan and Switzerland must stop obstructing developing countries’ right to participate in and benefit from scientific progress.
