State`s Responsibility for Protecting the IPRs and the Food Security of Citizens

The protection of IPRs in agriculture and its related areas affects food security directly and indirectly. Right to Food and IPRs has both recognized in human rights instruments and states have the duty to protect and provide these rights. However the approaches about the relationship between IPRs and food security have been inconsistent so far. This inconsistency about the interaction between these areas of law-i.e. their conflict or their co-existence has made it difficult for governments to keep balance between them. It seems that keeping balance between IPRs and food security requires the establishment of a complex system which can effectively protect the weaker actors such as farmers and traditional knowledge holders. In this respect codification of effective rules about IPRs will be appropriate to public interests only if coexists with other rules and policies such as providing food security.