The WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (‘Doha Declaration’) represented a groundbreaking moment in the history of intellectual property (IP) international policy, recognizing that Member States should not be prevented from taking measures to protect public health, reaffirming the right to use the so-called TRIPS flexibilities to that aim, such as compulsory licensing and parallel imports. The impact of IP protection on public health has continued to be at the forefront of debate to ensure equitable and affordable access to medicines and other medical products globally, and especially in the global South. The Covid-19 pandemic brought new challenges. Solutions are being discussed beyond use of TRIPS flexibilities, such as a temporary waiver to TRIPS during the pandemic.
At the 20th anniversary of the WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, the South Centre opens a call for abstracts for new research in the field of IP and public health. The selected abstracts will be invited to write full papers, which will be presented at an international event in 2022 organized by the South Centre to commemorate such date and subsequent publication by the South Centre as open access. A small honorarium will also be offered for completed full papers that meet the South Centre standards of publication.
This call invites established scholars, early career academics, PhD students and practitioners (policy makers, lawyers) across multiple disciplines to submit abstracts. Abstracts may deal with, inter alia, the legal standing of the Doha Declaration, the impact of the Declaration in legislation and practices, measures needed to further implement the Declaration through the substantive flexibilities in the IP system afforded by the TRIPS Agreement that are relevant to pursue public health goals, impact and possible review of article 31 bis of the TRIPS Agreement as implementing regulation of paragraph 6 of the Declaration, historical and legal analyses reflecting on successful cases of public health-oriented IP policies and cases, as well as instances of barriers to that achievement, comparative analyses between countries, empirical and statistical studies, as well as legal reflections with a policy perspective.
Deadline for abstract proposal: 20 October 2021
Send the abstract proposal of up to 500 words to ngomeeneme(at)southcentre.int with subject: “Submission: call for papers 20 Years of Doha Declaration” together with a CV.
A response will be provided to selected participants by end October.
Deadline for final papers to be submitted: 15 January 2022
