Download Activists Call For A Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons

Activists Call For A Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons
BRIDGES Trade BioRes
Vol. 2 No. 2
February 7, 2002
Biotechnology activists at a workshop held during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 2
February launched The Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons, proclaiming that the global gene
pool should be treated as a collective responsibility and a commons that must not be privatised through
intellectual property rights. Supporters of the Treaty hope that it will be adopted at the Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development in autumn this year and converted into a legally-binding
international treaty.
"We believe that our evolutionary heritage is not a commodity to be bought or sold," said Maude Barlow of
the Council of Canadians, one of the organisations supporting the initiative. "All of the current
arrangements and consultative initiatives based on the principle of selling prospecting rights to genetic
information and extending intellectual property protection to life are unacceptable mechanisms for
governing the gene pool." Vandana Shiva of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology explains that "our initiative improves upon other international agreements dealing with this issue
in one very fundamental aspect - unlike other initiatives, we oppose the extension of intellectual property
rights to any living thing as well as the components of the living things."
The Treaty, which has been supported by 250 NGOs from over 50 countries, is meant to counter the
patenting of genes, micro-organisms, plants, animals and human parts (often referred to as 'patenting
life'). In the past two decades, the extent of such patenting by biotechnology firms, universities and
governments, mostly in the developed world, has increased tremendously. This enclosure of the socalled 'genetic commons' has been condemned by many NGOs and some governments on the grounds
that it is said to conflict with the sovereign rights of nation states and indigenous peoples, and also that it
privatises genetic information that all people should have free access to. Critics also argue that the very
notion of scientists 'inventing' a life-form, seed, cell line, protein or DNA sequence is fundamentally
incorrect or even sacrilegious. Other critics claim that strong patent protection in the biotechnology field
may even hinder innovation. On the other hand, many companies defend such patents on the grounds
that without them others could freely use their inventions and they would therefore have no incentive to
invest large sums of money in research and development.
The Treaty was drafted over a period of two years through a participatory process involving NGOs,
political parties and parliamentarians. In order to gather and intensify global support, an international
committee consisting of 18 NGOs has been set up, including well-known organisations like the
Foundation on Economic Trends, the International Forum on Globalization, Centro de Educacion y
Tecnología in Chile, the Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network, Southeast Asia Regional Institute for
Community Education (SEARICE), the Community Technology Development Trust, and Via Campesina.
Background
Biotechnology patenting has become an important trade issue in recent years. While the WTO Agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) requires Member States to allow the
patenting of micro-organisms, intellectual property protection does not have to be extended to plants or
animals. As for new plant varieties, they must provide some kind of intellectual property protection,
though this does not have to be a patent system. These provisions (as set out in Article 27.3b of the
TRIPs Agreement) are currently being reviewed by the WTO TRIPs Council (see BRIDGES Trade
BioRes, 22 November 2002, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/01-11-22/story3.htm). Most developing countries
would prefer to maintain the plant and animal exceptions, and some would like also to outlaw the
patenting of micro-organisms. Developed countries are generally content to leave the text as it is for the
time being, though some would like to see the exceptions removed eventually.
In addition to the TRIPs Agreement, the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 22 November 2001; http://www.ictsd.org/biores/01-1122/story4.htm) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) also deal with the ownership and
commercial use of genetic resources. Both agreements affirm the sovereign rights of national states over
genetic resources and require that benefits from commercial use be shared with provider countries.
Additional Resources
The draft text of "The Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons" is available at
http://www.sustain.org/biotech/library/admin/uploadedfiles/treaty_to_share_the_genetic_commons_the.ht
m.
"Hundreds of NGOs from More than 50 Nations Announce Support of a Treaty to Establish the Gene Pool
as a Global Commons", PRESS RELEASE, 1 February 2002.
http://www.wtowatch.org/library/admin/uploadedfiles/Hundreds_of_NGOs_from_More_than_50_Nations_
Ann.htm