WUNRN
Direct Link to Full 56-Page 2014 Report:
Governments in industrial countries regularly put
pressure on developing countries to introduce stringent plant variety
protection (PVP) regimes and to adhere to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention,
without duly considering its consequences on the enjoyment of human rights
of vulnerable groups such as small-scale farmers and in particular women.
New research shows, the expansion of intellectual
property rights on seeds might well restrict small-scale farmers’ practices of
seed saving and use, exchange and selling in the informal seed supply system,
limiting access to seeds and putting their right to food at risk.
A pioneering research published in the Report “Owning
Seeds, Accessing Food” (PDF, 2.2 MB) by an international group of NGOs
reveals worrying results. The human rights impact assessment of stringent plant
variety protection and seed laws based on the 1991 Act of the International Union for the
Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 91) provides
convincing evidence of the threat to the right to food by small-scale farmers.
Their widespread practice of freely saving, replanting, exchanging and selling
seeds clashes with the UPOV 91’s provisions that restricts or even prohibits
such practices for seeds arising from protected varieties of plants by plant
breeders. Consequently, plant variety protection based on UPOV 91 will make it
harder for small-scale farmers to access improved seeds as shown by the case
studies in Kenya, Peru and the Philippines presented in the research report.
Access to seed is a key feature of the right to food of resource-poor farmers.
While to date governments have not heeded
calls from UN human rights bodies, academics and NGOs to carry out human rights
impact assessments of new policies and laws, the new NGO research
report (PDF, 2.2 MB)proves their value for policy-making in the
public interest.
The report warns governments that
accelerated introduction of stringent plant variety protection based on UPOV 91
might threaten the right to food. Based on the findings, the report provides
key recommendations to be urgently considered by governments. These include:
·
*To undertake a
human rights impact assessment before drafting or amending a national plant
variety protection law or before introducing intellectual property requirements
in trade or investment agreements in the area of agriculture,
·
·
*To use the
flexibility provided by the TRIPS Agreement to draft PVP laws and related
measures that reflects the needs and interests of the most vulnerable groups
such as small-scale farmers,
·
·
*To promote
implementation of other legal obligations such as realizing farmers’ rights,
the protection of the rights of indigenous people and traditional knowledge,
·
·
*To ensure
national PVP laws allow small-scale farmers to freely save, use, exchange and
sell all farm- saved seeds/propagating material,
·
· *To ensure that governments abide by a transparent and participatory process that includes all potentially affected stakeholders, especially small-scale farmers and public interest groups, when drafting, amending or implementing seed laws and related measures. Failing to do so risk the violation of the