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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20250120T110952Z
DTSTART:20250129T173000Z
DTEND:20250129T200000Z
SUMMARY:Lecture: Access to Life-saving Medication for All? Positive Oblig
 ations\, Corporations\, and Fundamental Rights
UID:{http://www.columbasystems.com/customers/uom/gpp/eventid/}z1f9-m64y2h
 qy-jwi5v9
DESCRIPTION:We’re excited to invite you to this year's Harry Street Lectu
 re\, a highlight of our academic calendar. The lecture will be delivered
  by recently appointed Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court of Sou
 th Africa [https://www.uj.ac.za/members/prof-d-bilchitz/ Professor David
  Bilchitz]\, University of Johannesburg & University of Reading\, as he 
 delves into a critical contemporary issue: the accessibility of life-sav
 ing medications. \n\n•	Date: Wednesday\, 29 January 2025 \n•	Time: 5.30p
 m-8pm\, Drinks Reception from 6.30pm \n•	Location: Roscoe Building: Thea
 tre B\, University of Manchester and online\n\nThis is a hybrid event- P
 lease reserve your place [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-harry-stree
 t-lecture-2025-access-to-life-saving-medication-for-all-tickets-11309309
 07789?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery
 &utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl/ via Eventbrite] \n\nU
 sing the recent National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE)
  decision regarding the use of breast cancer drug Enhertu in the NHS as 
 a compelling case study\, the lecture will question the current media fo
 cus on the government's obligations and instead shift the focus to the r
 esponsibilities of pharmaceutical companies to make life-saving drugs av
 ailable at affordable prices. You can read further details regarding the
  lecture content and Professor Bilchitz below. \n\nThe lecture will run 
 for roughly 45 minutes followed by a Q&A and drinks reception starting a
 t 6.30pm. Online attendees will be able to submit questions via the Zoom
  chat function and a member of staff will read them to Professor Bilchit
 z on your behalf. \n \nLecture Abstract: \nIn 2024\, the National Instit
 ute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) decided that a life-saving bre
 ast cancer drug Enhertu could not be made available on the NHS in Englan
 d and Wales\, largely due to the high price being charged by pharmaceuti
 cal corporations. Much of the subsequent outcry in the media has been fo
 cused on government’s obligations to ensure access to life-saving drugs.
  Yet\, very little discussion has been focused on the obligations of pha
 rmaceutical companies to make such life-saving drugs available at an aff
 ordable price. This lecture will consider the question of whether corpor
 ations have positive obligations to take active steps to assist in the r
 ealization of fundamental rights\, and\, if they do\, how to determine t
 he extent of their obligations. First\, I will consider the case for rec
 ognizing that corporations have positive obligations.  I will provide re
 asons for rejecting the position in existing international frameworks su
 ch as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
  which confine corporate obligations to those involved in avoiding harm 
 to fundamental rights. Secondly\, I will turn to consider how to determi
 ne the substantive content and extent of those obligations. I will provi
 de an analytical framework for addressing this question which involves m
 ultiple factors and a decision-making procedure for reaching a final det
 ermination. Throughout\, I will use the example of access to life-saving
  medications by pharmaceutical manufacturers to illustrate the approach.
  Lastly\, I consider how a recognition of positive obligations of corpor
 ations can practically be enshrined in law. I evaluate a promising appro
 ach adopted in India requiring corporations to spend 2% of their net pro
 fits on contribution to social projects and demonstrate\, how suitably m
 odified\, such an approach can be harnessed to ensure corporations play 
 their part in helping to realise our most basic of rights.   \n\nSpeaker
  Biography: \nDavid Bilchitz is a Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co
 nstitutional Law at the University of Johannesburg and Director of the S
 outh African Institute for Advanced Constitutional\, Public\, Human Righ
 ts and International Law (SAIFAC). He is also a part-time Professor of L
 aw at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He was appointed 
 as an Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from Fe
 bruary to May 2024\, the first full-time academic to have been appointed
  directly to act as judge on the Court in over 20 years.  \n \nHe was Se
 cretary-General of the International Association of Constitutional Law f
 rom 2013 to 2020 and is now a Vice-President of the Association. He was 
 also chief organiser of the World Congress of Constitutional Law which b
 rought constitutional academics from around the world to Johannesburg in
  2022. He is also a Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. H
 e was awarded a Von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship in 2017 and between A
 ugust 2017 and August 2018\, served as a Visiting Research Professor at 
 the Humboldt University in Berlin. He has a BA (Hons) LLB cum laude from
  the University of the Witwatersrand and an MPhil and PhD from the Unive
 rsity of Cambridge.  \n \nBilchitz has 2 monographs\, 5 co-edited books\
 , 1 textbook\, 25 book chapters and 41 journal articles. His writing cov
 ers a range of topics including writings on proportionality\, socio-econ
 omic rights\, business and fundamental rights\, the separation of powers
 \, the rights of non-human animals\, the tension between religion and eq
 uality and LGBT+ rights. He has advocated publicly for fundamental right
 s in various campaigns and submissions including being the legal advisor
  to a coalition of LGBT organisations in the successful campaign for sam
 e-sex marriage in South Africa and\, later\, in the successful campaign 
 for a moratorium on the culling of elephants. He has also developed a bl
 og – African Law Matters – for the discussion and advancement of fundame
 ntal rights on the African continent and been a founding partner in the 
 Constitution Hill Debating Tournament\, which educates learners about co
 nstitutional rights in South Africa. \n
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:Roscoe Building: Theatre B and Online\, Roscoe Building\, Manche
 ster
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