Advocating for science progress as a human right

Abstract

"[Everyone has] the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications." Article 15(1)(b), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1) We all have a human right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (the Right to Science [RtS]).* The right has its origins in Article 27 of the United Nation's (UN's) 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in the wake of World War II (2). † In 1966, the UN turned these commitments into binding obligations under international law. The implication is that, just as governments are expected to respect the rights to, say, freedom of speech and due process, so they must also adopt measures to respect and ensure the RtS (Fig. 1). The existence of this right is important for researchers and society. It adds a legal and moral dimension to a range of fundamental issues, including scientific freedom, funding, and policy, as well as access to data, materials, and knowledge. Yet, despite its potential for furthering science and human rights causes, the RtS has not received the attention it deserves. As the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) notes, "governments have largely ignored their Article 15 obligations and neither the human rights nor the scientific communities have brought their skills and influential voices to bear on the promotion and application of this right in practice" (3). We argue that the scientific community should be aware of this right-and make others aware, as well. The historical neglect of the RtS has, in part, been because of the difficulty in interpreting its implications, both normative and practical. We try to unpack these complexities here in hopes of not only explicating the RtS but also demonstrating why the scientific community should act to enrich it.

Ethical Principles, Constraints, and Opportunities in Clinical Proteomics

“…General principles of open and transparent science including sharing of methods and results and FAIR access to data ( 48 ) are especially important to fully realize the benefits of clinical proteomics in line with the ethical principle of equality and the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress ( 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ). Note, however, that these principles may conflict with the rights of autonomy and privacy of individuals—a tension that may be alleviated by technological progress in computer science such as federated learning or blockchain technologies ( 53 , 54 ).…”

Risk in trustworthy digital repository audit and certification

“…Digital information is a foundational element of many core values in our society including scientific research and scholarship, open government, and human rights. The right to benefit from scientific progress and its applications is a key element of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations Office of the High Commissioner 1966), and this right has been interpreted to include access to data (Porsdam Mann et al 2018). Data produced through scientific research represent a tremendous investment of resources.…”

The Right to Science in Practice

“…The Right to Science in Practice: A Proposed Test in Four Stages other highly cited themes including intellectual property protection, participation in science, and dual use (Porsdam Mann et al, 2018;Porsdam Mann, Donders, and Porsdam, 2020). Thus, it was acknowledged that science is important for the fulfilment of other human rights duties, but also that it has value of its own.…”

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The human right to enjoy the benefits of the progress of science and its applications (the right to science, or RtS), enshrined in Article 27(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 15(1)b of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) "adds a legal and moral dimension to a range of fundamental issues, including scientific freedom, funding, and policy, as well as access to data, materials, and knowledge" (Porsdam Mann et al, 2018). Part of the promise is that the RtS, as it becomes more developed, may be used as a legally binding and normatively weighty framework for the assessment of the ethical and human-rights related aspects of science and scientific policy.This chapter introduces the four-step test, a framework developed as a means to assess whether a policy complies with the obligations imposed by the right to science under international human rights law.

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