PHM-Exch> Latin American civil society condemns Human Rights violation by the EU in the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal

[Claudio Schuftan]

**
*Seizure of legitimate generic medicines is condemned for violating right to
health *

Civil society organizations of Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, countries
affected by the seizure of generic medicines in European harbors, will
present to the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPC), today, May 14th, in
Madrid, Spain, a complaint against the European Union (EU) for the seizures.
The organizations request that the EU be held guilty for violating the right
to health and to life of the populations of the affected countries, for
imposing illegitimate and illegal obstacles in the access to generic
medicines used in treating several illnesses. The gravity of this fact was
reinforced on the 12th of May when the Brazilian and Indian governments
requested a consultation in the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) against the EU and Netherlands regarding the seizures.

Recent cases of detention of Indian generic medicines in transit to
developing countries in Africa and Latin America, seized by European customs
officials, only emphasize the hazards brought by the boarder measures which
include intellectual property rights. The impact of these measures is clear
with the detention of at least 18 shipments of generic medicines from India
in European ports, from 2008 to 2009, based on the EU’s Regulation n.
1383/2003. The apprehensions of generic medicines were justified under the
allegation of combating counterfeits. However, EU is treating legitimate
generic medicines as counterfeits, provoking a deliberate confusion between
the terms, and hindering the right to access of medicines at affordable
prices.

The PPC is a non-governmental international opinion Tribunal, originated
from the trials on crimes against humanity committed by the USA in the
Vietnam War. It was constituted in Italy in 1979 and has already been in
session in 31 occasions to judge several cases of human rights violations.
This time, the session entitled *La Unión Europea y las Empresas
Transnacionales en America Latina *(European Union and Transnational
companies in Latin America) will be held on May 14th and 15th, 2010, in
Madrid, Spain, making the fourth Peoples’ Summit *Enlazando
Alternativas *(“Linking
Alternatives”), an event occurring parallel to the sixth Summit of Head of
States and Governments of the European Union, Latin America and the
Caribbean.

In the presented case, the EU is demanded to interrupt its seizures of
generic medicines in transit in their harbors; and that it abstains from
promoting deliberate confusion in relation to the concepts of generic and
falsified medicines. In the same manner, it is also being requested that the
term “counterfeit”, related to intellectual property rights, stops being
used in discussions involving falsified medicines. The civil society groups
from these countries hopes that adequate measures are adopted to guarantee
the reparation of the people affected by the undue seizures.

According to data from 2009 of the World Health Organization (WHO), about 2
billion people in the world do not have access to essential medicines, and a
considerable part of this population lives in Latin America. The
pharmaceutical patent guarantees monopoly over the production and
commercialization of a medicine, allowing the practice of high prices,
maximizing the profit of transnational companies over the right to health of
the populations in developing and less developed countries. In a scenario of
problems in the access to treatment and high prices, generic medicines are
fundamental for pubic policies regarding health and promotion of the human
right to health.

The case was signed by the following organizations: Work Group on
Intellectual Property (GTPI, acronym in Portuguese) of the Brazilian Network
for the Peoples’ Integration (REBRIP, acronym in Portuguese), from Brazil;
Mission Health Foundation, Table of NGOs which work with HIV/AIDS, and the
Colombian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, from Colombia;
International Action for Health - Latin America and the Caribbean, from
Peru; Ecuadorian Coalition of People Living with HIV/AIDS, from Ecuador.



For more information, please contact:

In Madrid (Spain):

Renata Reis – +55 21 9114-1838 / +34 91 441 45 00 / e-mail
renata at abiaids.org.br

Francisco Neves - +34 91 441 45 00 - francisco at abiaids.org.br

In Brazil:

Pedro Villardi – +55 21 2223-1040 / +55 21 9438-0399 e-mail:
pedro at abiaids.org.br

Marcela Vieira – +55 11 3884 7440 / e-mail: marcela.vieira at conectas.org
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