Compulsory Licensing and Women’s Access to Medicines - A Critical Assessment of the Gender-Neutral TRIPS Framework
(2026) HARN63 20261Department of Business Law
- Abstract
- Women’s access to essential medicines is restricted by intersecting barriers such as economic dependence, reproductive health stigma, information gaps, and pharmaceutical R&D priorities that overlook their needs. Access to medicines is simultaneously shaped by international intellectual property law, particularly patent protection under the TRIPS Agreement, which has been criticised for restricting the availability and affordability of medicines in developing countries.
Against this background, this thesis asks: How effective is TRIPS' compulsory licensing in enabling states to safeguard women's right to essential medicines in developing countries? To answer this, it employs doctrinal legal analysis, a human rights-based approach, and a... (More) - Women’s access to essential medicines is restricted by intersecting barriers such as economic dependence, reproductive health stigma, information gaps, and pharmaceutical R&D priorities that overlook their needs. Access to medicines is simultaneously shaped by international intellectual property law, particularly patent protection under the TRIPS Agreement, which has been criticised for restricting the availability and affordability of medicines in developing countries.
Against this background, this thesis asks: How effective is TRIPS' compulsory licensing in enabling states to safeguard women's right to essential medicines in developing countries? To answer this, it employs doctrinal legal analysis, a human rights-based approach, and a critical lens grounded in feminist legal theory. It first maps the relevant legal framework under TRIPS and international human rights law. The availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality framework, and the tripartite state obligations under ICESCR and CEDAW, are then used to derive a gender-sensitive benchmark. Mousmouti's four-stage effectiveness test is applied to assess compulsory licensing against this benchmark across purpose, compatibility, results, and integration.
The thesis finds that although compulsory licensing under TRIPS is necessary to improve public health, it is not sufficient to ensure that women in developing countries can access essential medicines. The key findings reveal that the framework lacks a gender-sensitive purpose and does not refer to women’s specific health needs. Although legal space for compulsory licensing exists, structural barriers, political pressure, and judicial formalism consistently prevent it from reaching women in practice. Documented compulsory licences specifically for medicines addressing women’s health conditions appear to be scarce, and the mechanism remains insufficiently aligned with international human rights obligations. These findings support the feminist critique that international law's assumption of universality conceals gendered inequalities. Gender-sensitive implementation criteria, sex-disaggregated monitoring, and stronger alignment with human rights standards are required if compulsory licensing is to genuinely serve women's health needs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9233173
- author
- Criveanu, Alexandra-Maria LU and Litu, Alexia-Marina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- HARN63 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- compulsory licensing, TRIPS, women’s right to health, essential medicines, AAAQ framework, tripartite state obligations, gender sensitive benchmark, developing countries, international law universality
- language
- English
- id
- 9233173
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-09 11:44:44
- date last changed
- 2026-06-09 11:44:44
@misc{9233173,
abstract = {{Women’s access to essential medicines is restricted by intersecting barriers such as economic dependence, reproductive health stigma, information gaps, and pharmaceutical R&D priorities that overlook their needs. Access to medicines is simultaneously shaped by international intellectual property law, particularly patent protection under the TRIPS Agreement, which has been criticised for restricting the availability and affordability of medicines in developing countries.
Against this background, this thesis asks: How effective is TRIPS' compulsory licensing in enabling states to safeguard women's right to essential medicines in developing countries? To answer this, it employs doctrinal legal analysis, a human rights-based approach, and a critical lens grounded in feminist legal theory. It first maps the relevant legal framework under TRIPS and international human rights law. The availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality framework, and the tripartite state obligations under ICESCR and CEDAW, are then used to derive a gender-sensitive benchmark. Mousmouti's four-stage effectiveness test is applied to assess compulsory licensing against this benchmark across purpose, compatibility, results, and integration.
The thesis finds that although compulsory licensing under TRIPS is necessary to improve public health, it is not sufficient to ensure that women in developing countries can access essential medicines. The key findings reveal that the framework lacks a gender-sensitive purpose and does not refer to women’s specific health needs. Although legal space for compulsory licensing exists, structural barriers, political pressure, and judicial formalism consistently prevent it from reaching women in practice. Documented compulsory licences specifically for medicines addressing women’s health conditions appear to be scarce, and the mechanism remains insufficiently aligned with international human rights obligations. These findings support the feminist critique that international law's assumption of universality conceals gendered inequalities. Gender-sensitive implementation criteria, sex-disaggregated monitoring, and stronger alignment with human rights standards are required if compulsory licensing is to genuinely serve women's health needs.}},
author = {{Criveanu, Alexandra-Maria and Litu, Alexia-Marina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Compulsory Licensing and Women’s Access to Medicines - A Critical Assessment of the Gender-Neutral TRIPS Framework}},
year = {{2026}},
}