[Ip-health] TWN on Latest situation at negotiations at IGWG

[James Love]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Riaz K. Tayob <riazt@iafrica.com>
To: i+a iplusa <iplusa@lists.keionline.org>
Subject: [i+a] TWN IP Info: Latest situation at negotiations at IGWG
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:45:20 +0100

Title : Latest situation at negotiations at IGWG
Date : 09 November 2007
Contents:
TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Nov07/01)
Third World Network
www.twnside.org.sg


Latest situation at negotiations at IGWG


The negotiations at the World Health Organisation=E2=80=99s Intergovernment=
al
Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
Rights (IGWG) is to be reconvened in 2008 for discussions to continue.
Member states are expected to agree tomorrow on processes to take the
discussions forward.

An update of the negotiations on the penultimate day is included below.

With best wishes
Martin Khor
TWN

-------------------------------------------------------

Latest situation at negotiations at IGWG

By Riaz K. Tayob (TWN), Geneva 9 Nov 2007

Negotiations are very unlikely to conclude by Saturday (the last day) at
the second session of the WHO=E2=80=99s 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=E2=80=99s 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 =E2=80=93 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
=E2=80=98Textual Submission =E2=80=93 Element 3-8=E2=80=99 which includes t=
he 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=E2=80=99s draft t=
ext
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 =E2=80=9CTextual Submission =E2=80=
=93 Element 3
=E2=80=93 8=E2=80=9D the US and the European Commission (which reportedly r=
etains
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 =E2=80=98 Textual Submissions Plan of Action =
=E2=80=93
Elements 1 & 2=E2=80=99 has also been issued. It addresses the second part =
of
the Secretariat=E2=80=99s 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.