Legal Frameworks for Benefit Sharing: From Biodiversity to Human Genomics - Benefit Sharing - page 31

Chapter 3
Legal Frameworks for Benefit Sharing:
From Biodiversity to Human Genomics
Pamela Andanda, Doris Schroeder, Sachin Chaturvedi, Emezat Mengesha
and Tim Hodges
Abstract The philosophical principle behind benefit sharing is simple. Those
who contribute to scientific research ought to share in its benefits. This is a matter
of justice. If benefit sharing does not take place, exploitation may have occurred.
The term “benefit sharing” was popularized by the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), which was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. This
chapter provides an overview of the key international instruments and guidelines
that make provisions for benefit sharing. Legal instruments are often categorized
as to whether they are binding or non-binding. With the exception of the CBD
itself most benefit sharing provisions are non-binding. All other key instruments
presented here - the Declaration of Helsinki, the CIOMS International Ethical
Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects, the HUGO Ethics
Committee's Statement on Benefit Sharing, and UNESCO's Universal Declaration
on the Human Genome and Human Rights, and Universal Declaration on
Bioethics and Human Rights - are non-binding. Yet even when the law is clear and
binding, compliance is not usually easily achieved. The access and benefit-sharing
P. Andanda ( * )
School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, Johannesburg 2050,
South Africa
e-mail: [e-mail]
D. Schroeder
UCLAN, Centre for Professional Ethics, Brook 317, Preston PR1 2HE, UK
e-mail: [e-mail]
S. Chaturvedi
RIS, Zone IV-B, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, India
e-mail: [e-mail]
E. Mengesha
C/O Muluemebet Zenebe, P.O. Box 150139, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
e-mail: [e-mail]
T. Hodges
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2,
Canada
e-mail: [e-mail]