WAC DOHA

The Fifth Anniversary of Doha Declaration marks broken promises

Government leaders, through their inability to fulfil the promises made in the Doha Declaration, have failed millions of people around the world whose lives depend on access to essential medicines.

The Doha declaration notes that trade rules should support countries' right to protect public health, particularly "access to medicines for all".

  1. The declaration recognized concerns about the effect of the TRIPS Agreement on prices of medicines, but today new medicines continue be priced exorbitantly high.
  2. The declaration reaffirmed the right of governments to use the flexibilities of TRIPS, but now some countries are using new bilateral and regional trade agreements specifically to remove these flexibilities.
  3. The declaration called for a solution that would allow medicines made under compulsory licences to be exported to countries without manufacturing capacity but despite claims that this has been solved, so far no one has managed to do this.

Campaigners call for more commitment on alternative ways of balancing intellectual property rights and public health.

To read more about DOHA, please see the articles below