Patents versus patients : global governance and the role of civil society in South Africa's quest for affordable drugs

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an explanatory study into civil society's increased influence in globalgovernance. More specifically this situation is examined by looking at the generic medicinedebate that came in the wake of the passing of the Medicines and Related Substances Act bythe South African government in 1997. This debate gained worldwide attention and touchedsome of the prevailing inequalities between the developed world and the developing world inour globalised society. The research question that is addressed here is to what extent did civilsociety influence the signing of the Doha Declaration of the TRIPS Agreement and PublicHealth by the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001? In doing so, thisthesis looks at the role of the US government, the South African government, thepharmaceutical industry, the WTO's TRIPS Agreement and civil society in the form of nongovernmentalorganisations like Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Oxfam and MedecinesSans Frontieres (MSF).The study applies a constructivist approach in order to analyse how civil society used globaladvocacy networks to inform and communicate the normative concerns regarding SouthAfrica and developing countries' lack of access to HIVand AIDS drugs. Moreover, itexamines how civil society's use of moral authority challenged the regulative power of theWTO.The study concludes that civil society played a vital role in influencing the WTO memberstates' decision to sign the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.However, it was not only civil society's ability to set the agenda concerning the HIV/AIDSpandemic, but also the content of the normative concerns themselves that help explain itssuccess. Consequently, the study further concludes that civil society's success in this specificcase must be seen in light of its growing influence in challenging global governance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University