Protecting traditional knowledge is key to development, according to the Director of World Intellectual Property Organisation

The head of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today wrapped up a five-day visit to India, during which a major focus of discussions was protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore.

Director General Francis Gurry lauded India as a “pioneer” in dealing with questions related to these three issues, according to a news release issued by the Geneva-based agency.

In particular, he highlighted the publicly available Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, which contains a vast database of thousands of formulations in patent search compatible formats in various languages.

The importance of advancing international discussions on the protection of traditional knowledge, genetic resources, traditional cultural expressions and folklore was also the focus of a one-day international conference held today in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

In his opening remarks to the meeting, Mr. Gurry applauded India’s achievements in establishing frameworks to protect its ancient traditional knowledge systems, such as the “Indian Systems of Medicine” initiative which covers traditional healthcare systems and medicine. He also noted the enactment of legislation to protect traditional knowledge and genetic resources.

WIPO has been addressing these issues through its Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, set up in late 2000.

Intellectual property rights allow the creators – or owners of patents, trademarks or copyrighted works – to benefit from their own work or investment in a creation.

These rights are outlined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides for the right to benefit from the protection of moral and material interests resulting from authorship of any scientific, literary or artistic work

Ban Ki-Moon fasts on the eve of the World Summit on Food Security

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon intends to join a 24-hour fast over the weekend on the eve of the World Summit on Food Security in solidarity with the planet’s one billion people who do not have enough to eat, his spokesperson said today.

Mr. Ban will deliver a speech at the opening of the three-day summit in Rome on Monday in which he is expected to say that it is unacceptable that more than one billion go hungry when the world has more than enough food, Marie Okabe told a news briefing.

“He will also highlight the human cost of the recent food, energy and economic crises and say that these crises are a wake-up call for tomorrow,” she added. “In particular, he will emphasize the link between food security and climate change.”

Mr. Ban will stress that next month’s climate change meeting in Copenhagen must conclude a comprehensive agreement that will provide a firm foundation for a legally binding treaty on climate change.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Wednesday called for a day-long, global hunger strike.

“We are suggesting that everyone in the world who wants to show solidarity with the one hungry billion people on this planet go on hunger strike next Saturday or Sunday,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told a press conference in Rome.

Afro-Brazilians and Indigenous groups face serious bias

While Brazil has an “impressive” set of laws and policies to promote human rights and improve socio-economic well-being, indigenous groups and Afro-Brazilians face serious discrimination, injustice and violence, the United Nations human rights chief said today.

Wrapping up her week-long visit to the South American nation, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay noted that millions of Afro-Brazilians and indigenous people are “mired in poverty” and lack access to basic services and employment opportunities

“Until that changes, it will hamper Brazil’s progress on many other fronts,” she told a news conference before departing the country, urging officials to focus on fully implementing existing laws, plans and policies to address discrimination

She lauded the country’s Constitution and legal framework, saying they “form an impressive foundation of human rights protection,” and noted a number of important measures taken by the Government, including this week’s passing by the Congress of a constitutional amendment designed to provide free universal education to children aged 4 to17

“Many of Brazil’s biggest problems are rooted in poverty and discrimination, and a truly universal secondary education system is essential if there is to be major improvement in these areas,” she said

At the same time, she noted a number of issues of concern, including the situation of the country’s indigenous people. The fact that she had not seen a single indigenous person among all the many officials she had met during the visit was “very indicative of their continued marginalization,” she stated

Ms. Pillay stated that, for the most part, Brazil’s indigenous people “are not benefiting from the country’s impressive economic progress, and are being held back by discrimination and indifference, chased out of their lands and into forced labour.”

In addition, there are very few Afro-Brazilians in positions of authority, and this was particularly striking in the country’s northern Bahia state, “where three-quarters of the population are Afro-Brazilian, but hardly any of the top administrators.”

Turning to the issue of violence, the High Commissioner acknowledged that Brazil’s police had a tough task in trying to maintain law and order. She said the Government needs to establish a clear policy to combat impunity, adding that all allegations of rights violations need to be promptly and thoroughly investigated by independent authorities. Perpetrators must be prosecuted, irrespective of whether they are gangsters or policemen, she added.

“The astonishingly high rate of homicides in Brazil’s overcrowded prisons, and allegations of widespread torture and inhumane conditions are alarming and unacceptable,” she said. “Equally disturbing is the fact that the vast majority of those incarcerated are Afro-Brazilians.

She also pointed to the “very high levels of violence directed at Brazilian women,” and said she hoped more could be done “to help women all across the country make use of the laws and projects designed to protect them.”

Ms. Pillay, who met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and several ministers and officials, noted that Brazil is “the only country in South America not to have taken action to confront abuses committed during the period of military rule.” There are ways of dealing with this “which avoid reopening the wounds of the past and help to heal them instead,” she said.

“Torture, however, is an exception,” she said. “International law is unequivocal: torture is a crime against humanity and cannot be left unpunished. The fact that the torture that took place in the military era has still not been dealt with by Brazil means that the proper, clear disincentives to commit torture now and in the future are not in place.”

While in Brazil, the High Commissioner also attended the annual national conference on human rights defenders and met with a wide range of civil society representatives in three cities –Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and, the capital, Brasilia.

She also visited an isolated community of Afro-Brazilian descendants of slaves in Bahia state, and one of Rio de Janeiro’s poverty-stricken favelas.

Ban expresses belief in climate change ahead of his Washington visit

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on November 9 voiced confidence for an agreement next month on fighting global warming even as key issues remain unresolved, a day before he travels to Washington D.C. to discuss with senior officials and congressional leaders what world governments expect in terms of the United States’ role.

“The Secretary-General is confident that governments will reach agreement in Copenhagen on the fundamental issues that will form the substance of a legally binding international agreement which is the end goal for guiding action on climate change,” the Director of Mr. Ban’s Climate Change Support Team, Janos Pasztor, told a news conference in New York on the upcoming summit in the Danish capital.

Although in all likelihood it will not be possible to complete all the work needed for a legally binding agreement at Copenhagen, he said, the meeting should make clear what needs to be done in the three core fundamental issues that remain unresolved – ambitious mitigation targets in the developed countries, how to consider mitigation actions in developing countries, and financing.

“Those are the three key issues where there still needs to be agreement, and they are precisely the issues where heads of State and heads of government need to be engaged because those issues are so important for the overall economic development of the countries that you cannot expect the negotiators themselves to make a move,” he added.

Asked why, in that case, Mr. Ban was confident, he replied: “Because they can be resolved, that’s why.” That confidence is based on his recent conversations with world leaders in which everyone wants to have a deal in Copenhagen, Mr. Pasztor said.

“There is tremendous interest and while we’re not quite there yet, the willingness is there to make it happen, so it is not a question of whether or not we’re going to have a deal, it’s a question of how we’re going to make sure that we get a good deal in Copenhagen and the Secretary-General is convinced that it is possible and therefore it will happen,” he added.

World governments are seeking to agree to a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty that committed 37 industrialized States to cutting emissions by an average of 5 per cent against 1990 levels over the period from 2008 to 2012.

On Friday, as the last preliminary negotiations before Copenhagen wrapped up in the Spanish city of Barcelona, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said developed countries would need to provide at least $10 billion to enable developing countries to immediately develop low-emission growth and adaptation strategies and to build internal capacity.

 

Millions in Africa set to suffer, as food crisis deepens

Despite good global cereal harvests this year, millions of people in dozens of poor countries are in desperate need of emergency humanitarian aid due to stubbornly high food prices, the United Nations agricultural agency warned in a report released today.

Critical food insecurity is affecting 31 countries and the situation is particularly acute in East Africa, where prolonged drought and mounting conflict have left an estimated 20 million people in need of food aid, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, published ahead of next week’s World Summit on Food Security in Rome, noted that although international food prices have fallen significantly since their peak a few years ago, wheat and maize prices rose in October and rice export prices are still high above pre-crisis levels.

“For the world’s poorest people who spend up to 80 per cent of their household budgets on food, the food price crisis is not over yet,” said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. “It is now a global priority to increase investment in developing country agriculture in order to fight poverty and hunger.”

The report said that in Western Africa cereal production for 2009 is set to decline from last year because below average rainfall forced farmers to re-plant crops in many parts of the region and led to livestock losses in Mali, Chad and Niger.

The dire food situation in the region is worsened by cereal prices remaining well above the levels of two years ago before the hike in food prices, with the price of millet in the markets of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger ranging from 21 to 42 per cent higher, and imported rice between 22 and 46 per cent higher.

In addition, an expected reduction in Nigeria’s cereal production could lead to new price rises across West Africa, the report said.

The FAO report also voiced deep concern over the situation in Eastern Africa as crops and pastures are expected to fail due to poor rains and an increase in armed conflict, resulting in more trade disruptions and continuing high food prices.

Kenya’s maize production is forecast to be 30 per cent down on last year, leaving almost 4 million Kenyans either highly or extremely food insecure, and in Ethiopia the number of people in need of food aid jumped from 5.3 million in May to 6.2 million in October.

 

 

Africa’s efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals is in “peril”

Africa’s efforts to meet the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 deadline are threatened by the impact of the global financial crisis on the continent’s economies, said Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.

“Despite some notable achievements, progress is off track across the continent,” she told the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Ms. Migiro noted that between 2000 and 2008, Africa achieved impressive economic growth that averaged more than five per cent per year.

“But that good news is in peril. The economic crisis, for which Africa bears no responsibility, has drastically reversed recent trends,” she said at the meeting, hosted by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

She noted that Africa’s growth for 2009 is projected to hit a paltry 1.7 per cent. Many people are losing their jobs and falling back into poverty.

“Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is likely to be adversely affected. The food and energy crises, as well as climate change, will also complicate our work.”

Ms. Migiro urged the participants – who are examining how the various United Nations departments, agencies and other components work more effectively together – to implement the recommendations issued in July 2008 by the MDG Africa Steering Group.

Chaired by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Group called for a number of measures in such areas as agriculture, education, health and infrastructure to speed up Africa’s progress towards reaching the Goals.

Regarding agriculture, the Group called for the international community to mobilize over $750 million to help the continent meet short-term needs that have arisen due to soaring food prices. It also urged African governments to work with global partners to launch a Green Revolution on the continent.

Ms. Migiro also invited participants to take part in the meeting planned for 23 November in New York of the MDG Africa Working Group to identify areas where action should be intensified.

Today’s gathering in Addis Ababa follows a similar regional coordination meeting convened in Beirut by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which was also attended by the Deputy Secretary-General.

 

 

Yvo de Boer, Exec Secretary of the UNFCCC, is optimistic of a strong climate deal

As the last negotiating session before next month’s United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen concluded today, a senior official with the world body called on countries to push ahead to deliver on a strong international agreement to tackle global warming.

“Copenhagen can and must be the turning point in the international fight against climate change – nothing has changed my confidence in that,” said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“A powerful combination of commitment and compromise can and must make this happen,” he told a news conference in Barcelona, the site of the final round of talks ahead of the 7 to 18 December meeting in the Danish capital.

In Copenhagen, governments are expected to agree to a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty – part of the overall UNFCCC – which has strong, legally binding measures committing 37 industrialized States to cutting emissions by an average of 5 per cent against 1990 levels over the period from 2008 to 2012.

Over 4,500 participants from 181 countries participated in the five-day gathering, during which progress was made on the issues of adaptation, technology cooperation, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and mechanisms to disburse funds for developing countries.

Little progress was made, however, on mid-term emission reduction targets of developed countries and finance, according to a news release issued by the UNFCCC. These are two key issues that would allow developing countries to limit their emissions growth and adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change.

“Without these two pieces of the puzzle in place, we will not have a deal in Copenhagen,” said Mr. de Boer, adding that “leadership at the highest level is required to unlock the pieces.

At the high-level climate change summit held in New York in September, heads of State and government pledged to achieve a deal in Copenhagen that spells out ambitious emission reduction targets of industrialized countries, as well as nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries with the necessary support, and significantly scaled-up financial and technological resources.

“I look to industrialised countries to raise their ambitions to meet the scale of the challenge we face,” said Mr. de Boer. “And I look to industrialized nations for clarity on the amount of short- and long-term finance they will commit.”

Mr. de Boer said developed countries would need to provide at least $10 billion to enable developing countries to immediately develop low-emission growth and adaptation strategies and to build internal capacity.

At the same time, developed countries will need to indicate how they intend to raise predictable and sustainable long-term financing and what there longer-term commitments will be.

“Negotiators must deliver a final text at Copenhagen which presents a strong, functioning architecture to kick start rapid action in the developing world,” said the Executive Secretary.

“And between now and Copenhagen, governments must deliver the clarity required to help the negotiators complete their work,” he added.

 

Latin America on track to achieve many MDGs, but gender inequality and violence still an issue

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has spotlighted the slow global progress towards reducing gender inequality and violence against women on the first day of a three-day official visit to Chile.

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, met President Michelle Bachelet and Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez Amuntategui yesterday in Santiago, as well as with UN Resident Representatives and Resident Coordinators across Latin America, who have gathered in the Chilean capital for their annual meeting.

Addressing that meeting, Miss Clark said Latin America was on track to achieve many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set of social and economic target that the world’s countries agreed to try to reach by 2015.

She noted that the region remained on track even to meet the target for reducing extreme poverty – halving the proportion of people who live on less than $1 a day – despite the current global recession, the impact of climate change and high food and fuel prices.

But Miss Clark said that, worldwide, progress towards those MDGs relating to the needs of status of women has been slower.

“In this region UNDP has been very active in addressing challenges related to gender inequality, including violence against women and the need for better balance between work and family life,” she added.

“I believe it will be critical for gender analysis to be applied in the preparations for the 2010 high-level MDG review next year at the UN General Assembly. All development stakeholders need to become more aware of how attending to women’s needs will help achieve a wide range of development goals.”

Deputy Secretary-General, Migiro: Greater UN coordination can boost efforts to achieve anti-poverty goals

Greater coordination among United Nations agencies is crucial to helping countries, including those in the Arab region, slash poverty, hunger, illiteracy and a host of other scourges, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told a meeting in Beirut today.

 

Ms. Migiro was addressing the opening of the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) meeting, which is designed to ensure that the various UN departments, agencies and other components in the region work more effectively together.

“We all appreciate that the objective of the RCM is mainly to achieve policy coherence and create synergy at the regional and sub-regional levels to improve the impact of our work,” she told the gathering in the Lebanese capital which was convened by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

“Not for the sake of coordination itself, but to help facilitate real results for our clients – the governments and peoples of our Member States.”

She noted that coordination and collaboration within and among UN agencies is “central” to efforts to achieve the global anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as other objectives, and stressed the importance of their combined strength.

“Each of you, as separate agencies, programmes and funds, have decades of experience in this region – experience that spans a wide variety of issues,” she said.

“What unites us is our commitment to the right of all children, women and men to live full and dignified lives, with the opportunity and freedom to realize their full potential.”

Ms. Migiro underscored the urgency of enhancing the level of coordination among UN bodies in the region, noting that the target date for achieving the MDGs is just a few years away. “With just over five years left in the MDG period, we must do everything possible to ensure that the Goals are met, across this region, and within each country.”

She added that Western Asia demonstrates that “great progress can be made when good policies are matched with adequate resources,” noting that child and maternal mortality are low across the region, and extreme poverty is limited.

Still, more can be done, she said, pointing out that more children need to be enrolled in school, good jobs should be available to more people, and greater efforts are needed to address hunger.

In addition, she noted that the Arab region can play a vital role in identifying success stories and pointing out challenges, ahead of the high-level General Assembly meeting on the MDGs slated to be held in September 2010.

“We hope this will enable us to catalyze effective action to replicate and scale-up existing successes… to fill gaps in our progress toward the Goals… and to make good on the MDGs’ promise for all of the world’s people,” said the Deputy Secretary-General, who will travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week for a similar regional coordination meeting convened by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Inter-faith initiatives pushes to mobilise billions in fight against climate change

Nearly one month before the climate talks in Copenhagen begin, a crucial event to reach out to the eighty-five per cent of humanity who follow a religion has kicked off in London’s Windsor Castle.

From 2-4 November, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is co-hosting the global gathering of inter-faith leaders: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet.

At the event organized by Prince Philip’s Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), religious leaders from all the major faith traditions will highlight the earth’s fragility, and discuss initiatives to protect it against the ravages of climate change.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr. Ban stressed that, “without full support and cooperation of religious leaders it will be very difficult to obtain… a binding agreement in Copenhagen”.

World leaders will have a window of opportunity to seal a climate deal in Copenhagen this December, and “negotiations should be firmly supported by global citizens and particularly when it comes to religious leaders since there are so many followers”, the UN Secretary General added.

According to the ARC, faith-based groups own nearly eight percent of habitable land on Earth, operate dozens of media groups and more than half the world’s schools, and control seven percent of financial investments worth trillions.

The various points of agreement on environmental ethics among the different religions illustrate the potential for the world’s faithful to spur positive environmental practices.

According to the UNEP publication Earth and Faith: A Book of Reflection for Action, the world religions condemn greed and destructiveness, and universally urge restraint and protection.

The event will launch dozens of long-term commitments by all the major faith traditions including; transitioning to solar-powered Taoist Temples in China; creating faith-based eco-labelling systems in Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and greening all types of religious buildings, among other initiatives.

The event will conclude on 4 November – one month before the key climate talks – with a panel discussion titled Many Heavens: One Earth – Faiths, the Environment and Copenhagen.

Participants will include intergovernmental organizations and leading practitioners such as Sally Bingham, founder of Interfaith Power and Light and Olav Kjorven, Assistant Secretary-General of the UN.