Vindicating the Rights of People Living with AIDS Under the Alien Tort Claims Act

Abstract

Life-saving medications currently do not reach the vast majority of people in the developing world living with AIDS. This is not an accident; pharmaceutical companies, defending their patents literally to the death, systematically pressure, manipulate, and threaten governments of developing countries to "respect" the intellectual property rights of U.S. corporate giants at the expense of the health and life of their populations. Having developed the international trade regime stacked in favor of U.S. corporate interests, pharmaceutical companies now go even further; they sue governments exercising the few remaining legal options for accessing low-cost medicines. This Article argues that this type of abuse of the legal system violates the human rights of people living with AIDS for whom hope of treatment remains a distant dream, and that the Alien Tort Claims Act presents one vehicle for the vindication of their rights.

Keywords: AIDS, Alien Tort Claims Act, TRIPS Agreement, ATCA, ATS, Alien Tort Statute, Human Rights, International Law, South Africa Medicines Act