Legal Regime for the Protection of Genetic Information of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in International Law
Elena Evgenyevna Gulyaeva · Kutafin Law Review · 2022
The present study aims at providing an idea that the protection of genetic and genomic information of indigenous peoples and local communities should be legally established at universal and regional levels. There is a trend in many countries towards the disappearance of rare nations and peoples representing genetic diversity. In the case of the collection, processing, storage, transmission of data in the application of artificial intelligence take further action to ensure cybersecurity, develop ethical guidelines and confidentiality requirements for collection and processing genomic and genetic information on the health of indigenous peoples and local communities bearing in mind the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965). Although human genes are not covered by the Convention on Biodiversity (1992), it should be applied by analogy in the case of the protection of the “genetic” heritage of mankind. The research uses general scientific and special cognitive techniques wherein legal analysis and synthesis, systemic, formal-legal, comparative-legal, historical-legal and dialectical methods are applied. The author calls on the international community to recognize indigenous genetic information from medical research as the common heritage of mankind and to establish special legal responsibility of present generations for the future of mankind at the universal level. The author of the article notes the importance of prevention the development of racial and ethnic weapons against a certain population group and to prevent the commission of the crime of “genomocide” against indigenous peoples and local communities and to comply with biosafety measures in conducting scientific research and obtaining certain genetic information, to preserve the uniqueness of the biocode of the nations and peoples inhabiting our planet.