A/70/279 are needed to protect the public interest wherever a particular technology is critical to human welfare, as might be the case in areas of health, agriculture or housin g. 50. Patents generally enable patent-holding firms to charge higher prices, raising concerns about access to essential technologies, including medicines and seeds. Other undesirable effects may include insufficiency of supply to meet the need owing to the inadequacy of the sole producer; financial pressure put on social security systems; or a lack of competitive pressure to improve the product’s quality, lower its cost or adapt the product to serve alternative markets. 51. Pharmaceutical products, especially HIV medicines, are a particularly wellknown example of this tension between exclusive production and broad public access, as mentioned by the Special Rapporteur on the right of health (see A/HRC/11/12, para. 20). According to the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, current international intellectual property laws have failed to promote innovation to treat diseases that primarily affect low- and middle-income countries. The Commission called upon the United Nations to propose and develop a new intellectual property regime for medicines, consistent with human rights obligations. It also called upon WTO to suspend the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement, as they pertain to essential pharmaceutical products in both low- and middle-income countries. 16 Countries have found it necessary to issue compulsory licenses on patented drugs and vaccines to respond to urgent public health needs. 52. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food identified the increasing application of intellectual property regimes to plant varieties and seeds as a significant threat to food security, particularly for the poor (see A/64/170). Overlooking farmers’ informal systems, intellectual property regulations focus exclusively on the commercial seed system. National rules adopted to implement these regimes frequently prohibit even small farmers and public institutions from sharing, replanting and improving seeds covered by patents and plant varie ties. 16 Hence, “an excessive protection of monopoly rights over genetic resources can stifle progress in the name of rewarding it”. Such an approach undermines the livelihoods of small farmers, traditional and not-for-profit crop innovation systems, agro-biodiversity as a global public good and the planetary food system as a whole. It is crucial to recognize that (at least) two parallel agricultural systems exist, and should continue to exist: the commercial seed system and the farmers’ seeds (landraces) or informal systems. 17 53. Other areas of scientific innovation also have a significant impact on human rights, such as energy, information and communication technologies, nanotechnology and synthetic biology (see A/HRC/20/26, paras. 26 and 29). 54. It is important to address the gaps and resulting discriminations between those with and without access to technologies, in the enjoyment of their right to participate in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the society. “Innovations that give power to those who have access to them, under conditions that make those who lack them vulnerable, can be used to dominate and to exploit, __________________ 16 17 14/26 See UNDP, “Global Commission on HIV and the law: risks, rights and health” (New York, 2012), recommendation 6.1. Olivier De Schutter, “The right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and the right to food: from conflict to complementarity”, Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 33, No. 2 (May 2011). 15-12543