With Molly Jagpal and Chee Yoke Ling

We are all familiar with the right to health as a human right. But what about so-called Intellectual Property Rights? What does it have to do with Health as a human right? Malayan expert lawyer Chee Yoke Ling explains how Intellectual Property systems operate under international law, how this leads to patent monopoly and why it undermines Access to Medicines to people all over the world. Listen, learn, and take action!

Ms Chee Yoke Ling is the Director of Programmes at Third World Network (TWN) and works from its international secretariat in Malaysia. Ms Chee trained in international law, with degrees from the University of Malaya (Malaysia) and Cambridge University (UK). She has been involved in sustainable development work since the 1980s and is a teacher of public interest law at the Faculty of Law, the University of Malaya. She was part of the Malaysian Government delegation to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro and provided technical support to the Chair of the Group of 77 in the negotiation of the Rio Declaration. She has participated as an accredited observer in the Commission on Sustainable Development, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Ms Chee has also worked closely with key officials from several developing countries on the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. She has published several articles on a wide range of issues and is currently a lead author in the chapter on Sustainable Development and Equity of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III on Mitigation. She is also a visiting scholar at the Minzu University in Beijing and a Board member of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.

Ms Jagpal is a Senior Consultant on Access to Medicines at DNDi, The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, a non-profit drug research and development organization that creates new treatments for neglected diseases in the Global South. Ms Jagpal leads the DNDi communications strategy for South East Asia by anchoring messaging to the organization’s mission and strategic narrative while working with important global partners at HQ (Geneva) and in local markets to propel DNDi’s goals and help the most neglected patients. Ms Jagpal has excelled in giving visibility through authentic communications to DNDi and has contributed greatly to local policy and public affairs efforts. Ms Jagpal holds degrees from London Metropolitan University and University of the Arts London. She has an extensive international career, having worked as the Executive Director of the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (BMCC), as Country Director of Conferences for the Mumbai-based Expomedia Group Plc, and as a Strategic Corporate Relations Consultant for the Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA) in Kuala Lumpur.