PHM-Exch> Africa IP Summit: Sign On letters

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Sangeeta <sangeeta at twnetwork.org>

 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.

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. Many of these provisions are
likely to have a problematic impact on access to medicines.

 If you are interested in more details see the US government site
http://www.cldp.doc.gov/programs/Africa-intellectual-property-forum.
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 2 letters with similar content.
One addressed to the World Intellectual Property Organisation WIPO (see
below)
 and another to the South Africa missions in Geneva (see attached).

If you are interested to sign on to these letters, 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
www.twnside.org.sg
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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 WIPO’s 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 “kick away the ladder” for
developing countries and to protect the interests of certain
influential domestic actors.  In view of this, WIPO’s 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 “TRIPS plus plus” 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 “Counterfeit” 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 “counterfeit medicines”) is
not within the mandate of WIPO but a responsibility of the World
Health Organization. Dealing with the problem of “counterfeit
medicines” 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 WIPO’s 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 WIPO’s website about
this Summit. This undermines implementation of the Development Agenda
recommendation on transparency.

Further the US government website[1] 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 WIPO’s website.  Further we also call on WIPO to avoid partnering
actors that tend to promote an unbalanced IP agenda in its future
activities.

Signatories


The Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD)
Consumer Association of Penang
Health Gap, USA
Third World Network
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