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take measures that prevent third parties from interfering with the moral and material interests of
authors. Finally, the obligation to fulfil requires States parties to adopt appropriate legislative,
administrative, budgetary, judicial, promotional and other measures towards the full realization
of article 15, paragraph 1 (c).21
29.
The full realization of article 15, paragraph 1 (c), requires measures necessary for the
conservation, development and diffusion of science and culture. This follows from article 15,
paragraph 2, of the Covenant, which defines obligations that apply to each aspect of the rights
recognized in article 15, paragraph 1, including the right of authors to benefit from the protection
of their moral and material interests.
Specific legal obligations
30.
States parties are under an obligation to respect the human right to benefit from the
protection of the moral and material interests of authors by, inter alia, abstaining from infringing
the right of authors to be recognized as the creators of their scientific, literary or artistic
productions and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other
derogatory action in relation to, their productions that would be prejudicial to their honour or
reputation. States parties must abstain from unjustifiably interfering with the material interests
of authors, which are necessary to enable those authors to enjoy an adequate standard of living.
31.
Obligations to protect include the duty of States parties to ensure the effective protection
of the moral and material interests of authors against infringement by third parties. In particular,
States parties must prevent third parties from infringing the right of authors to claim authorship
of their scientific, literary or artistic productions, and from distorting, mutilating or otherwise
modifying, or taking any derogatory action in relation to such productions in a manner that
would be prejudicial to the author’s honour or reputation. Similarly, States parties are obliged to
prevent third parties from infringing the material interests of authors resulting from their
productions. To that effect, States parties must prevent the unauthorized use of scientific,
literary and artistic productions that are easily accessible or reproducible through modern
communication and reproduction technologies, e.g. by establishing systems of collective
administration of authors’ rights or by adopting legislation requiring users to inform authors of
any use made of their productions and to remunerate them adequately. States parties must
ensure that third parties adequately compensate authors for any unreasonable prejudice suffered
as a consequence of the unauthorized use of their productions.
32.
With regard to the right to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests
resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of indigenous peoples, States parties
should adopt measures to ensure the effective protection of the interests of indigenous peoples
relating to their productions, which are often expressions of their cultural heritage and traditional
knowledge. In adopting measures to protect scientific, literary and artistic productions of
indigenous peoples, States parties should take into account their preferences. Such protection
might include the adoption of measures to recognize, register and protect the individual or
collective authorship of indigenous peoples under national intellectual property rights regimes
and should prevent the unauthorized use of scientific, literary and artistic productions of
indigenous peoples by third parties. In implementing these protection measures, States parties
should respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous authors