PHM-Exch> SIGN ON: SUPPORT FARMER & CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS' APPLICATION TO UPOV FOR OBSERVER STATUS

Tue Mar 9 03:03:15 PST 2010

Dear Friends, 

Pls support farmer and civil society groups trying to get accredited to
UPOV. 

If you would like to sign on to the Open letter below email Sangeeta
Shashikant at sangeeta at thirdworldnetwork.net
with the name of your Organisation, Country and details of a contact person
by 14th March 2010.

See the letter below. Regards Sangeeta, Third World Network
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CALL TO SUPPORT FARMER & CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS' APPLICATION TO UPOV
FOR OBSERVER STATUS

By:

European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), a member of Via Campesina

APBREBES which is made up of: Berne Declaration (Switzerland); Center for
International Environmental Law (USA); Community Technology Development
Trust (Zimbabwe); Development Fund (Norway); Local Initiatives for
Biodiversity, Research and Development (Nepal); Searice - The Southeast Asia
Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (Philippines); and Third World
Network (Malaysia).

Dear Friends,

UPOV is an intergovernmental organization where international rules on plant
variety protection are defined with major impacts for food sovereignty,
biodiversity and farmers¹ rights. Last October, UPOV rejected applications
by the Association of Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES)
and the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) for observer status
although associations that represent the interests of major seed and
biotechnology companies or the interests of IP lawyers actively participate
in UPOV meetings,

Now, APBREBES & the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) are applying
again for observer status to UPOV. The next UPOV meeting will take place at
the end of March in Geneva.

To support the Application to UPOV for Observer status please sign-on to the
attached Open Letter addressed to the UPOV Secretariat & its member States.

TO SIGN-ON please email Sangeeta Shashikant at
sangeeta at thirdworldnetwork.net with the name of your Organisation, Country
and details of a contact person by 14th March 2010.

For more information on the rejection for observer status, please see the
press release at http://www.evb.ch/en/p16720.html. See also IP-Watch¹s story
titled ³Farmers¹ Advocacy Groups Rejected As Observers In Plant Rights
Organisation² (10 Nov. 2009) available at
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/11/10/farmers¹-advocacy-groups-rejected-
<http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/11/10/farmers%C2%B9-advocacy-groups-rej
ected-> as-observers-in-plant-rights-organisation/

For further enquiries contact:

Sangeeta Shashikant (Third World Network):sangeeta at thirdworldnetwork.net
Fergal Anderson (European Coordination Via Campesina): fergal at eurovia.org
Teshome Hunduma (Development Fund-Norway): teshome at utviklingsfondet.no
François Meienberg (Berne Declaration-Switzerland): food at evb.ch
Shreeram P Neopane (LI-BIRD  Nepal): sneopane at libird.org

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Open letter 

TO:
M Francis Gurry, Secretary General of UPOV,
Dr. Rolf Jördens, Vice-Secretary General of UPOV,
Member States of UPOV

SUPPORT FOR FARMER AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS¹ OBSERVER STATUS TO UPOV

We, the undersigned organisations call on UPOV to open its doors to farmer
and civil society organizations.

Last October, UPOV¹s Consultative Committee rejected the application by the
Association of Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES) and the
European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) for observer status in UPOV¹s
bodies. In addition, ECVC learned of the rejection through official meeting
records, as UPOV did not even consider it necessary to communicate to ECVC
of the outcome of the application for observer status.

UPOV being a Union of States must represent the interests of all their
people.  Thus in our view, this rejection was without any concrete basis and
is simply unacceptable.

ECVC is a member of Via Campesina, the biggest international movement of
peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women,
indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers.

APBREBES is founded by organizations working on plant breeding and issues
related to UPOV regulations. APBREBES is made up of the following
organizations: Berne Declaration (Switzerland); Center for International
Environmental Law (USA); Community Technology Development Trust (Zimbabwe);
Development Fund (Norway); Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and
Development (Nepal); Searice - The Southeast Asia Regional Initiative for
Community Empowerment (Philippines); and Third World Network (Malaysia).

The competence of ECVC and APBREBES in matters governed by UPOV is beyond
question.

We are of the view that UPOV¹s decision on the application for observer
status needs to be revisited. The decision is disappointing. It shows that
UPOV is not inclusive or supportive of farmer and civil society
organizations that work in the interest of peasants, small and medium scale
farmers and the broader public. It also shows that UPOV favors and prefers
to largely involve right-holders, private seed companies, and their
representatives in its decision making processes and is against having a
variety of views presented in the Organization¹s discussions. Its attitude
is against the global trend of more inclusive participation of civil society
in multilateral intergovernmental fora.

Organizations such as the International Association for the Protection of
Intellectual Property (AIPPI); International Chamber of Commerce (ICC);
European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries¹ Association (EFPIA);
International Federation of Industrial Property Attorneys (FICPI) and other
associations that represent interests of major seed and biotechnology
companies and IP holders have observer status at UPOV.

As such it is indefensible that farmer and civil society organizations such
as ECVC and APBREBES were denied observer status last October. This is even
more so in view of the recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food that has presented evidence of the possible adverse impact of
plant variety protection laws on the lives of farmers and food sovereignty.

We are of the view that representation of all stakeholders is crucial for
the further development of UPOV. UPOV being an intergovernmental
organisation cannot only serve the interests of the private sector and
ignore the interests of peasants, small and medium scale farmers and the
broader public. 

We strongly support the application by ECVC and APBREBES for observer status
in UPOV bodies  and urge the UPOV Secretariat and Member States to grant
observer status to ECVC and APBREBES at the next UPOV-Meeting in March 2010.

A rejection of the applications would signify to the world that UPOV only
favors certain stakeholders and is not interested in taking into account
issues that affect, the most vulnerable communities, food sovereignty and
biodiversity.

Signatories

1. Action Aid, Pakistan
2. Agric Link Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, Nigeria.
3. ARCHE NOAH, Austria
4. Association d¹ Agriculture Contractuelle de Proximite, Switzerland
5. Association les Mangeurs, Switzerland
6.  Bio Suisse, Switzerland
7.  Coopérative Les Jardins de Cocagne, Switzerland
8. Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, Switzerland
9. Die Grünen Schweiz  Les Verts Suisse; Switzerland
10. Diverse Women for Diversity, India
11. Ecoropa, Germany
12. EED (Church Development Service), Germany
13. Farmer's Initiatives for Ecological Livelihoods and Democracy (FIELD),
Indonesia
14. GENET - European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering, Euriope
15. Initiative for Health equity & Society, India
16. Jardin des Charrotons, Switzerland
17. Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), Kenya
18. "Kein Patent auf Leben!"  "No Patent on Life!", Germany
19. Kheti Virasat Mission, India.
20. Lok Sanjh Foundation, Pakistan
21. Lopin bleu, Association consommateurs-producteurs, Switzerland
22. Network Opposed to GMOs (NO2GMOs), Philippines
23. Oikos - fellesorganisasjon for økologisk produksjon og forbruk, Norway
24. Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia
25.  Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA)
26. Peoples Health Council South Asia
27. Pour la Coopérative Européenne Longo maï, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 13,
case postale, 4004 Bâle
28. Programa Universitario México nación Multicultural -UNAM-PUMC-UNAM sede
Oaxaca
29. Interessengemeinschaft für gentechnikfreie Saatgutarbeit (IG Saatgut),
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
30. Sahaja samrudha-Organic farmers association of Karnataka
31. Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA), Sarawak, Malaysia
32. Senterungdommen, Norway
33. Schweizer Bergheimat, Switzerland,
34. Spire, the Development Funds Youth Organization, Norway
35. Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers Federation
36. Thanal, India
37. Uniterre, Switzerland
38. Urs Weber, Switzerland
39. Vision Landwirtschaft, Switzerland
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