Three whips of Bangladesh parliament blast TIB

Say graft watchdog's findings on present parliament part of int'l conspiracy to defame country

The TIB finding that the current parliament has not been able to function effectively “is part of an international conspiracy” to defame the country, three whips of the treasury bench in parliament said yesterday.

Human rights in IPRs regime

Mazharul Islam

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Human Rights (HRs) often come in conflict. Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the uniform and strict IPRs protection obligates all member countries irrespectively. Thus, the TRIPS Agreement causes concerns and challenges some important provision of human rights. Intellectual Property (IP) laws encourage creativity and innovation by granting individual of monopoly rights for a certain period of time. In one way it creates opportunity for the individuals, on the other it confronts the basic provisions of human rights. The people of the developing and the least developed countries (LDCs) are deprived from technological equipments and research opportunities. Therefore, many provisions of TRIPS are not consisten with the basic human rights instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).