Over 50 organisations have co-signed a letter to the International Plant Treaty calling for it to safeguard the implementation of farmers’ rights in the context of joint activities with the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
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by Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
AFSA has launched an urgent appeal to the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), the African Union (AU) and to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to urgently revise the draft ARIPO Plant Variety Protection Protocol, recognise farmers’ rights and facilitate the right to food. In its latest appeal to ARIPO, the AU and UNECA, and acting upon expert legal advice obtained, AFSA is alleging that:
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a pan African platform comprising civil society networks and farmer organisations working towards food sovereignty in Africa, has released a briefing paper on the deliberations that took place during the SADC Regional Workshop held on 13-14 March 2014, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In June 2014, Berne Declaration, a Swiss civil society organisation published a critique of UPOV's assessment of the impact of adopting PVP laws based on UPOV 1978 and 1991. UPOV's Report on the Impact of Plant Variety Protection published in 2005 is often used by UPOV in support of introducing plant variety protection based on UPOV 1991.
by APBREBES
UPOV in its press release dated 10th June 2014, announced that the African Intellectual Property Organization (known as the "Organisation Africaine de Propriété Intellectuelle" or by its acronym "OAPI") has joined UPOV as an intergovernmental organisation. OAPI has 17 mainly french-speaking countries as its members: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, EquatorialGuinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Its headquarters is in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
by APBREBES
The UPOV Council, the Consultative Committee, and the Administrative and Legal Committee met on 10 and 11 April, 2014. Among the key matters discussed were: the Draft Protocol on Plant Breeders’ Right of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), matters raised by the International Seed Federation (ISF), UPOV's communication strategy, and developments of relevance to UPOV in other international fora.
by APBREBES
Today most intergovernmental organisations allow access to proceedings of its meetings. For example, in WIPO, the full report of its various meetings, including interventions and decisions of Member States are publicly available on its website.
Seedmap.org is an online portal on seeds, biodiversity and food. It allows users to connect to information, organizations resources, events and debates relating to food security. It is also a valuable teaching & advocacy tool and reference point on seeds, biodiversity, and food. The heart of Seedmap.org is an interactive map that allows users to visit hundreds of case studies around the world where agricultural biodiversity originated, is threatened, and where people are working to safeguard it.
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Addis Ababa, Accra 3 April 2014 - The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) strongly condemns the move by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) to join UPOV 1991, which will effectively outlaw the centuries-old African farmers’ practice of freely using, exchanging and selling seeds/propagating material. These practices underpin 90% of the agricultural system within the ARIPO region.