Geneva (UCTP Taino News) — The sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened on 21 January 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Continuing the work of the fifth meeting of the Working Group, held in October 2007, the Working Group will work toward the elaboration and negotiation of an international regime on ABS.
The meeting is being attended by over 520 participants, representing Parties to the Convention and observer States, indigenous and local communities, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, United Nations sister agencies, and the business community.
Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, International Indian Treaty Council, Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge, Juventud Indigena Argentina, Consejo Autonomo Aymara, Centro Estudios Multidisciplinarios Aymara Bolivia, and the United Confederation of Taino People are among those actively engaging the process.
In a statement to the plenary, these organizations affirmed that the proposed “international regime should only apply to genetic resources, derivatives and products and associated traditional knowledge that have been accessed with the free prior and informed consent of, and mutually agreed terms with, Indigenous peoples who are the owners of such resources and knowledge under traditional systems and customary law and consistent with international human rights law.”
The results of the deliberations of the Working Group are scheduled to be submitted for consideration by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD at its ninth meeting, to be held from 19-30 May 2008, in Bonn, Germany.
The meeting is being attended by over 520 participants, representing Parties to the Convention and observer States, indigenous and local communities, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, United Nations sister agencies, and the business community.
Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, International Indian Treaty Council, Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge, Juventud Indigena Argentina, Consejo Autonomo Aymara, Centro Estudios Multidisciplinarios Aymara Bolivia, and the United Confederation of Taino People are among those actively engaging the process.
In a statement to the plenary, these organizations affirmed that the proposed “international regime should only apply to genetic resources, derivatives and products and associated traditional knowledge that have been accessed with the free prior and informed consent of, and mutually agreed terms with, Indigenous peoples who are the owners of such resources and knowledge under traditional systems and customary law and consistent with international human rights law.”
The results of the deliberations of the Working Group are scheduled to be submitted for consideration by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD at its ninth meeting, to be held from 19-30 May 2008, in Bonn, Germany.
Photo (IISD): Indigenous representatives attending the sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)
UCTPTN 01.25.2008
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See also:
Access, Benefit Sharing, and the Convention on Biological Diversity
http://uctp.blogspot.com/2007/10/access-benefit-sharing-and-convention.html
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