Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the compulsory licensing provisions under the TRIPS agreement and the issues related to the access of cheap generic drugs within a broader human rights-based context. Human rights activists and rights organisations have been consistently advocating that a) the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs) provisions on the patenting of pharmaceutical products and processes are extremely restrictive , and, b) that they violate the basic right to life and right to health by limiting access rights of poor developing sub-Saharan countries to cheap generic medicines. The right to health is recognised as a clear, determinate, universal human right by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as codified in December 1948.