E/C.12/GC/25
United Nations
Economic and Social Council
Distr.: General
30 April 2020
Original: English
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
General comment No. 25 (2020) on science and economic,
social and cultural rights (article 15 (1) (b), (2), (3) and (4) of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights)*
I. Introduction and basic premises
1.
The intense and rapid development of science and technology has had many benefits
for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. At the same time, the risks – and
the unequal distribution of these benefits and risks – have prompted a rich and growing
discussion on the relationship between science and economic, social and cultural rights.
Several important documents have been issued on this subject, such as the Venice
Statement on the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress and its Applications,
adopted in 2009, the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005, the
Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, adopted by UNESCO in 2017, the
report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights on the right to enjoy the
benefits of scientific progress and its applications (A/HRC/20/26) and the Committee’s
general comment No. 17 (2005) on the right of everyone to benefit from the protection of
the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production
of which he or she is the author. Indeed, UNESCO, declarations made at international
conferences and summits,1 the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, and eminent scientific
organizations and publications2 have upheld the “human right to science”, referring to all
the rights, entitlements and obligations related to science.
2.
In spite of these developments, science is one of the areas of the Covenant to which
States parties give least attention in their reports and dialogues with the Committee. This
has led the Committee, after a wide consultative process, to develop this general comment
on the relationship between science and economic, social and cultural rights.
3.
The Committee focuses primarily on the Covenant right of everyone to enjoy the
benefits of scientific progress and its applications (art. 15 (1) (b)), as it is the right most
frequently invoked in relation to science. However, the purpose of this general comment is
not confined to this right, but is also to develop the relationship more broadly between
science and economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee also examines the other
* Adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its sixty-seventh session
1
2
(17 February–6 March 2020).
See, for example, the declaration from the XXVI Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and
Government, available (in Spanish) at www.segib.org/wp-content/uploads/00.1.-DECLARACIONDE-LA-XXVI-CUMBRE-GUATEMALA_VF_E.pdf.
See, for example, Jessica M. Wyndham and Margaret Weigers Vitullo, “Define the human right to
science” Science, Vol. 362, No. 6418 (November 2018).
GE.20-06235(E)