A/HRC/26/19 I. Introduction 1. At its twentieth session, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 20/11, in which it requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to convene in 2013 a seminar of two working days on the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications in order to further clarify the content and scope of that right and its relationship with other human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of everyone to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he or she was the author. 2. The Council also requested OHCHR to invite States, the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights and other relevant stakeholders, including academic experts and civil society organizations, as well as relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and other international organizations to participate actively in the seminar. 3. The seminar was held at Palais des Nations, Geneva, on 3 and 4 October 2013, with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, giving the keynote address. Experts from academia, civil society organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) participated in the seminar as panellists. 4. Pursuant to the request of the Human Rights Council in resolution 20/11, the present report summarizing the key issues raised during the seminar was prepared by OHCHR for submission to the Council at its twenty-sixth session. II. Normative framework applicable to the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications 5. The Committee on the Theoretical Bases of Human Rights, convened by UNESCO in 1947 to work on developing the key concepts underpinning the draft Universal Declaration of Human Rights, had considered the normative content of this right. In its statement entitled “The grounds of an international declaration of human rights”, the Committee recognized the “right to share in progress”, characterized by “the right to full access to the enjoyment of the technical and cultural achievements of civilization.”1 The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress is now well established under international human rights law and is recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 15, para. 1) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 27, para. 1). Both instruments also recognize the right of everyone to the “protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author”.2 1 2 UNESCO, “The grounds of an international declaration of human rights”, Report of the UNESCO Committee on the Philosophic Principles of the Rights of Man to the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, Paris, 31 July 1947, sect. II, art. 15. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 15, para. 1 (c); Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 27, para. 2. 3