Science as a Cultural Human Right PENNSYLVANIA STUDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS Bert B. Lockwood, Series Editor A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. SCIENCE AS A CULTURAL HUMAN RIGHT Helle Porsdam UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA Copyright © 2022 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104- 4112 www .upenn .edu /pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Hardcover ISBN 978- 1- 5128- 2293- 9 Ebook ISBN 978- 1- 5128- 2294- 6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. CONTENTS List of Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 1. Setting the Scene 11 2. The Right to Science as a Cultural Human Right 34 3. The Dissemination of Science 55 4. Scientific Freedom 77 5. The Right to Science and International Cooperation and Solidarity 99 6. Of Human Rights, Human Duties, and Science Diplomacy 122 Conclusion 144 Notes 153 Index 189 ABBREVIATIONS AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science CBD UN Convention on Biological Diversity CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ECHR European Convention on Human Rights IASC International Arctic Science Committee ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights IP intellectual property IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature SAR Scholars at Risk SDG sustainable development goal SESAME Synchrotron- Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East Laboratory TRIPS WTO Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Pro- perty Rights UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UNDRIP United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples WHO World Health Organization WTO World Trade Organization INTRODUCTION Science as a Cultural Human Right One of the clear messages to emerge around the world during the COVID- 19 crisis is just how important it is to understand the ways that science can assist society and, just as crucially, how society can engage with and shape science. The human right to science, outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and repeated in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), is key to answering this message. Article 27(1) of the UDHR recognizes everyone’s right to “share in scientific advancement and its benefits”; Article 15(1) of the ICESCR rec- ognizes everyone’s “right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.”1 This right—the right to science—also requires states parties to develop and disseminate science, to respect the freedom of scientific research, and to recognize the benefits of international contacts and cooperation in the scientific field. The right to science has never been more important. Even before the COVID-1 9 health crisis, it was evident that people around the world increas- ingly rely on science and technology in almost every sphere of their lives: from the development of medicines and the treatment of diseases, to transport, agriculture, and the facilitation of global communication. This is reflected in the United Nations 2030 agenda with its seventeen sustainable develop- ment goals that emphasize the importance of science and technology for sus- tainable development. At the same time, however, the value of science has been under attack, with some raising alarm at the emergence of “posttruth” societies. Unintended, because often unforeseen, consequences of emerging technologies are also perceived to be a serious risk and subject to “dual use.” Dual use refers to scientific research, especially in the life sciences, that can be used in a beneficent way but that also has potential to cause harm. For example, viral reverse engineering to discover why the Spanish influenza 2 Introduction epidemic was so lethal is a type of dual- use research; on the one hand, critical information about pandemics can be gained, but on the other hand, a labora- tory error or theft can cause widespread panic and consternation concerning the reasons for the underlying experiments.2 Another example is editing of the human germline. While scientists working on such editing aim to max- imize social and human welfare, they may well have started us on a slippery slope of nontherapeutic purposes, such as choosing specific traits for babies not directly related to health, like intelligence, height, or eye color (so-c alled designer babies). The important role played by science and technology and the potential for dual use make it imperative to assess scientific research and its products not only on their scientific but also on their human rights merits. The added value of a human rights approach is more focus on the varied stakeholders in diverse societies. With relation to the right to science, such a focus requires “a form of affirmative action, that is, specific investments in science and technologies likely to benefit those at the bottom of the economical [sic] and social scale.”3 Legally speaking, as a human right, the right to science is not absolute. States may adopt specific measures to limit the conduct of science or the dissemination of scientific results in order to prevent harm or disrespect for other human rights.4 Such measures are called for to protect vulnerable groups such as indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities from “the negative consequences of scientific testing or applications on, in particular, their food security, health or environment.”5 Though it provides both scientists and members of the public with pow- erful legal and political tools to participate in science and to gain access to and share scientific knowledge and its applications, the right to science is surprisingly little known and underexplored. Too often restricted to aca- demic exercises, or kept as the province of UN and human rights scholars, the implications of the right to science have yet to be fully developed, norma- tively as well as practically. Dedicating her third thematic report to the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, the first UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, noted the urgency of the topic: “The scope, normative content and obligations of the State under this right,” she writes in the first paragraph of her 2012 report, “remain underdeveloped while scientific innovations are changing human existence in ways that were inconceivable a few decades ago.”6 Precisely because so many of the changes we are experiencing are the result of science and technology, we need to see the right to science as important in