PHA-Exch> Update on WHO negotiations on IPRs

[martin khor]

WHO: Negotiations drag at the IPR and innovation working grouppl distribute in the list serve
martin khor






Latest situation at negotiations at WHO's IPR/R&D group 

By Riaz K. Tayob (Third World Network) Geneva 9 Nov 2007

Negotiations are very unlikely to conclude by Saturday (the last day) at the second session of the WHO's Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (IGWG).

It is now likely that the negotiations will continue at a resumed session or some other meeting  sometime next year.

The delegations have not been able to discuss all the topics in the Secretariat's 31 July draft text.

During a meeting of the Committee of a Whole, Peter Oldham, the Chair of the Working Group said that the meeting would be suspended. He used the term advisedly as he said that when work resumes all the protocols and procedures adopted at the current session would be applicable.

He said that the Working Group Bureau would propose formally tomorrow to resume the session  from 28 April  to 3 May 2008, before the World Health Assembly because that is the mandate of the Working Group. At same time, he proposed that as members would like to continue the work of the drafting group dealing with the Plan of action. Perhaps 3 days can be set aside in Geneva for work to develop the plan of action from the negotiated text.

Denis Aitken of the Secretariat said that they would issue a conference room paper on the work being done in the drafting groups. As regards text that is not negotiated, the Bureau and the Secretariat would receive comments by 31 January which will be reproduced by 1 March to show the additional comments to non-negotiated text. He said we cannot accept submissions on negotiated text as that is up to members of the negotiating groups.

Brazil said that it was not against the timetable as proposed if that is what must be done. It said that on the chapeau and principles that have been agreed, it is important that this new face of the organisation and this must already be strengthened. It said that this is a historic time as many developing countries have shown a keen interest in this.

The two parallel drafting groups working on the draft texts are making progress but many developing countries do not expect to conclude discussions by Saturday despite having worked late every evening of the session. The discussions have centred mainly around the Global Strategy, the first annex of the Secretariat prepared draft text. Very limited work has been done on the second annex, the Plan of Action. The drafting groups are working on updated texts that include written submissions for changes from member states on the 31 July Secretariat prepared draft text.

Progress has been on the introductory paragraphs, Context, Aim, Focus and Principles, although differences remain on some of the paragraphs.  The paragraph on the Focus of the Global Strategy is still pending consensus. In the constantly updated working group texts, the paragraph related to the Focus is probably to be deleted according to many developing countries delegates. This is the paragraph in the draft text that contained the footnote prepared by the Secretariat that limited to focus of the Working Strategy to fourteen diseases.

Instead, a new introductory paragraph on principles has been negotiated and refers to the WHO Constitution, the objective of WHO shall be the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Other principles agreed include the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental human rights of every human being without distinction on of social or economic condition, the promotion of technological innovation and transfer of technology should be pursued by all states and supported by intellectual property rights, and intellectual property rights should not prevent member states from taking measures to protect public health. 

There is no consensus yet on principles including the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the health as recognised in international human rights instruments - particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Discussions need to be pursued on two alternate proposals, that the objectives of public health and the interest of trade should be appropriately balanced and coordinated, or, the right to health takes precedence over commercial interests.

A series of new texts have been produced as a result of the drafting group discussions. The Secretariat has issued to the drafting groups 'Textual Submission - Element 3-8' which includes the written submissions from member states on building innovative capacity,  transfer of technology, management of intellectual property; improving delivery and access, financing mechanisms, and monitoring and reporting systems. It includes suggested changes to the Secretariat's draft text of 31 July from a number of states, the Rio text Group ( group of 14 Latin American countries), India, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland, European Union, and regional groups within WHO like Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), South East Asia (SEARO), Africa (AFRO). 

It was agreed that members are not precluded from making new proposals on the draft texts. It seems that on the "Textual Submission - Element 3 - 8" the US and the European Commission (which reportedly retains authority on TRIPs related issues instead of the European Union) have not made textual submissions in time to be included. The US is reportedly very active in the discussions in the working groups.

In addition, another document ' Textual Submissions Plan of Action - Elements 1 & 2' has also been issued. It addresses the second part of the Secretariat's draft text which deals with Specific Actions, Indicators and the stakeholders responsible for implementing the actions. 

A 7 November working group draft text covering element 1 and 2 was released and has been subsequently updated yesterday. The updated version reflects a greater level of consensus although there are some provisions that are still in brackets and need to be discussed further. Developing country diplomats have said some developed countries have requested that issues related to intellectual property rights and financing be removed to element 5 on the management of intellectual property and element 7 on financing mechanisms.

The latest text from the drafting groups includes a paragraph that is pending consensus from the US and states, proposals should be developed for health needs driven research and development that include a range of incentive mechanisms and a method for tailoring the optimal mix of incentives to a particular condition of product with the objective of addressing diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries.

The drafting groups are currently dealing with the Global Strategy, element 5 on intellectual property and element 4 on technology transfer. and the progress is reportedly slow.

These new documents are issued by the Secretariat under the same document number, A/PHI/IGWG/2/2 although they do have different titles.

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20071109/37c8e8ce/attachment-0001.html>