[governance] Africa IP Summit: Sign On letter to WIPO

[Nyangkwe Agien Aaron]

Dear Sangeeta

I will like to sign the letter

Aaron

On 1/31/12, Sangeeta Shashikant <sangeeta at twnetwork.org> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> The US government is planning to hold in April an Africa IP Summit in
> partnership with Japan, France, and WIPO. South Africa is hosting this
> meeting. The private sector (ICC, BASCAP,Pfizer, Eli Lily et al) is
> sponsoring this meeting.This Summit aims to have at least 600 participants
> from the government, private sector, creative industry etc.The main focus of
> this Summit is enhanced IP protection and enforcement particularly on
> counterfeiting and piracy. Clearly this is a platform for US, Japan France
> to promote the TRIPS plus plus agendas seen in ACTA, TPPA, EPA etc, and this
> Summit will be promoting more anti-counterfeiting bills in Africa. If you
> are interested in more details see the US government site
> www.cldp.doc.gov/category/countries-and.../sub-saharan-africa.
>
> The Commercial Law Department Programme of the US department of commerce is
> organising this summit.
>
> We think it is important to raise some concern over this event. So we have
> drafted a letter to WIPO. See below.
>
> If you are interested to sign on to the letter, pls send me the name of your
> organisation and contact details to sangeeta at twnetwork.org or
> ssangeeta at myjaring.net
> by Thursday, 2nd February.
>
> Regards
> Sangeeta Shashikant
> Third World Network
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mr. Francis Gurry
> Director General
> World Intellectual Property Organization
> Africa IP Summit: Lacking a Development Dimension
> Dear Mr. Gurry,
> In 2004, the WIPO Development Agenda was launched amidst significant
> concerns that WIPO¹s activities lacked a development dimension, undermined
> public interest, while promoting the interests of IP holders. The
> Development Agenda received widespread global support leading to the
> adoption of 45 Development Agenda recommendations in 2007.
> We believe that at the core of these recommendations is the need for WIPO to
> ensure that a balanced and evidence based agenda on intellectual property is
> promoted taking into account the different levels of development and public
> interest considerations. Principles of transparency and avoiding of
> conflicts of interests also underpin these recommendations.
> In view of this, we note with significant disappointment and concern the
> context in which the upcoming Africa IP Summit will be held. Some key
> concerns are:
>  Conflicts of Interest: It is worrying to see that a major event such as an
> Africa wide forum is being co-organised in partnership with US, France and
> Japan. These governments are known for advocating TRIPS plus agendas in
> developing countries in the interests of their own industries and
> priorities. For instance these countries are proponents of the
> Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral treaty that is
> widely criticized for its secret negotiating process and the detrimental
> impact on public interest issues such as access to medicines, freedom of
> expression over the internet and access to knowledge. One key aim of the
> treaty is to export these problematic IP enforcement standards to developing
> countries.
> These countries also promote TRIPS plus standards through Free Trade
> Agreements such as through the Economic Partnership Agreements, and the
> recent Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. It is widely known that the
> different TRIPS plus standards advocated to, and in many cases imposed on to
> developing countries, will have devastating consequences for development
> including on access to affordable medicines, freedom of expression over the
> internet and access to knowledge. These standards are imposed to ³kick away
> the ladder² for developing countries and to protect the interests of certain
> influential domestic actors.  In view of this, WIPO¹s partnership with these
> countries to host an Africa wide IP Summit amounts to conflict of interests
> and is simply unacceptable.
> To make matters worse the Summit is being sponsored by the private sector in
> particular the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Business Action to
> Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Company etc.,
> that clearly have a strong stake in a pro-IP protection and enforcement
> agenda . The involvement of the private sector also raises issues of
> conflict of interests.
> WIPO being an intergovernmental and a specialized agency of the UN must take
> immediate measures to ensure that all its activities are evidence based,
> free of conflicts of interests and undue influence of actors that are known
> to promote an unbalanced IP agenda.
> Lacking a development and public interest dimension: The Africa IP Summit
> concept paper suggests a programme that undermines the spirit of Development
> Agenda. It is premised on the notion that heightened IP protection and
> enforcement will deliver development and protect public interest. This
> distorted approach has no historical or empirical basis and has been clearly
> rejected by the Development Agenda process. Important development issues
> such as the different levels of development, the importance of flexibilities
> (e.g. LDC transition periods, exceptions and limitations (e.g. parallel
> importation, compulsory licensing,) in meeting developmental objectives,
> examining and addressing the impact of IP on critical public interests
> issues such as access to affordable medicines, and access to knowledge,
> appear to be disregarded.
> Even more worrying is that the Summit aims to promote the link between IP
> enforcement and public health and safety, presumably to frighten people into
> accepting inappropriate standards of IP enforcement agenda.  We stress that
> an IP enforcement framework will not deliver effective public health
> protection as IP rights are not granted on the basis of the quality and
> safety of the product. Instead inappropriate standards of IP enforcement are
> likely to hinder public health such as access to affordable medicines. This
> has been amply demonstrated by the many seizures of quality generic
> medicines in transit at various European ports.
> Lobbying by some multinational companies and their developed country
> governments in linking IP enforcement to public health has led to a
> proliferation of anti-counterfeiting bills in many African countries as well
> as at the regional level, most notably in East Africa. The enactment of
> these bills is usually promoted on public health grounds. However in reality
> these bills are only about protecting the rights of IP holders and are in
> fact ³TRIPS plus plus² in so many ways, containing provisions that undermine
> flexibilities and that are detrimental to national developmental objectives
> such as building local production capacity, scaling up access to affordable
> medicines and improving access to knowledge. For example, most of these
> bills define ³Counterfeit² products as being substantially similar or
> identical to IP protected products, which effectively makes every generic
> pharmaceutical a counterfeit. In Kenya, enactment of the Anti-Counterfeit
> Act 2008 has been challenged by people living with HIV/AIDS on the grounds
> that enforcement and application of the Act will deny them access to
> affordable essential medicines and thus deny their Right to Life.
> Noting the controversies surrounding these bills, it is inappropriate for
> WIPO to be championing the strengthening of IP enforcement on alleged public
> health grounds.
> Further we stress that addressing the issue of substandard, poor quality
> medicines (also often labeled as ³counterfeit medicines²) is not within the
> mandate of WIPO but a responsibility of the World Health Organization.
> Dealing with the problem of ³counterfeit medicines² requires a focus not on
> IP enforcement but on building regulatory capacity and ensuring access to
> affordable medicines.  A process is already underway at the WHO to address
> this. Apart from medicines, it is also not within WIPO¹s mandate to deal
> with other poor quality, substandard products thus it is surprising that the
> Africa IP Summit is heavily focused on this issue.
> Lack of Transparency & Information: According to available information, the
> WIPO and African regional IP organizations are key partners in the
> organization of the Africa IP Summit. However to date there appears to be no
> information available on WIPO¹s website about this Summit. This undermines
> implementation of the Development Agenda recommendation on transparency.
> Further the US government website[1] <#_ftn1> states that registration
> request will not guarantee participation and that the participants will be
> selected. However no information is being provided on the criteria that will
> be the basis for selection.
> Following the above concerns, we demand that: WIPO postpone the holding of
> the Africa wide IP Summit. WIPO should also reconsider its partnership with
> the different interests involved and work to organize a balanced forum that
> is development oriented and upholds public interests as well as that is free
> of any conflicts of interests and influence of actors that tend to promote
> an unbalanced IP agenda. The process of organizing such a forum, (i.e. the
> selection of speakers, the drafting of the programme, criteria for selection
> of participants) should be transparent and all information should be
> promptly available on WIPO¹s website.  Further we also call on WIPO to avoid
> partnering actors that tend to promote an unbalanced IP agenda in its future
> activities.
> Signatories
> Consumer Association of Penang
> Health Gap, USA
> Third World Network
>
>
>
> [1] <#_ftnref1>
> http://www.cldp.doc.gov/programs/Africa-intellectual-property-forum
> <http://www.cldp.doc.gov/programs/Africa-intellectual-property-forum>
>
>
>


-- 
Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
Journalist-OutCome Mapper
Special Assistant to The President
ASAFE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
Cellphone: +237 73 42 71 27

-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t