A/HRC/55/44 dramatically heightens inequality and results in the neglect of the shared responsibilities to current and future generations.18 Without much debate or people’s participation, science is currently presented in an uncritical and undisputed way as the main solution to current challenges, missing the paradox that those challenges partially result from scientific products, including the genetic modification of crops, climate change, artificial intelligence and big data. 17. The coronavirus disease (COVID 19) crisis confirmed the need to reflect on science as a human right. Proving once again the importance of science, it also highlighted the clear inequalities in access to science outcomes within and among countries, the inadequacy and failure of intellectual property regimes to ensure the right to health globally and the impact of discrimination and poverty on realizing the right to access to and participation in science. In 2012, participants to a seminar organized upon the request of the Human Rights Council drew similar conclusions. 19 The Special Rapporteur also notes that the recommendations made under the mandate on ensuring the compatibility of intellectual property regimes with human rights and providing for a robust and flexible system of exceptions and limitations to honour their human rights obligations have not been implemented.20 She also recalls that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern in 2023 regarding the decision of Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America to withhold intellectual property rights for emerging coronavirus vaccines and medical technologies.21 18. The pandemic and more recently the achievements on artificial intelligence have triggered important discussions around the respective role and influence, in the making of science-related decisions, of scientific expertise, private commercial interests, and public participation. They confirmed the crucial need for trustful science-institutions and science-policy interfaces and the urgency of combating disinformation and misinformation in the area of science while respecting and protecting human rights, in particular the rights to freedom of expression and information. As science-based solutions are geared to tackle the many crises ahead, it is crucial to guarantee the autonomy and integrity of scientists while ensuring human rights guarantees on science issues. III. Right to participate in science as an element of the right to participate in cultural life A. Science is a part of culture 19. Science is an element of culture. In paragraph 10 of its general comment No. 25 (2020), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights clarified that culture was an inclusive concept encompassing all manifestations of human existence and that cultural life was therefore larger than science, as it included other aspects of human existence; it was, however, reasonable to include scientific activity in cultural life. Individuals and groups draw from all cultural resources, including scientific resources, to develop themselves, arranging such resources in a way that is very particular to them, including to express their visions, to influence their living conditions or to overcome an ordeal, such as an illness or a disaster. It is through such resources that people can aspire to a better future by identifying the elements they consider essential for a life with dignity.22 18 19 20 21 22 6 See contributions from Curating Tomorrow and Patrice Meyer-Bisch, Observatoire de la diversité et des droits culturels (in French). A/HRC/26/19, para. 43. A/70/279, paras. 95–101 and 103–106; A/HRC/28/57, paras. 94–98 and 104; and A/HRC/20/26, para. 74 (o)–(q). See “Refusal to waive IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines violates human rights: experts”, available at https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1140262; and contribution from Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association, p. 4. A/HRC/20/26, para. 20. GE.24-01813