Katherine A. Hagen - Managing Director
GSO
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GSO News Digest April 2006
2. HIV/AIDS at the ILO, the ICFTU, Lesotho and CNN!
4. Global Compact Board and Foundation
8. The GSO GAINs a New Neighbour
9. Internet
Governance Forum Consultations
GSO
News April 2006
1.
Human
Rights Council Elections
The
first elections of the new Human Rights Council will be held by the General
Assembly on 9 May. An inaugural meeting will take place on 19 June in Geneva. The members elected will be elected directly and individually by a
majority of the General Assembly members. They will not be eligible for
immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. There are 47 seats
divided between five regions of the world. Thirteen will be African,
thirteen will be Asian, six will be Eastern European, eight will be Latin
American and
The
countries running for election to the Council from Western States are
Each
country is being asked to present voluntary electoral commitments and pledges.
Although the General Assembly has given no specific guidance on the content of
such pledges the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has provided
some suggestions. (See http://www.ohchr.org/english/13042006.pdf).
Amnesty International is supplementing this with a website that provides a
human rights profile on each candidate country. (See http://www.amnesty.org.)
The
2.
HIV/AIDS
at the ILO, the ICFTU, in Lesotho
(with Prince Harry) and on CNN (with former President Bill Clinton)
April
is proving to be a lively month for actions to combat HIV and AIDS. At
the ILO, 28 April was World Day for Safety and Health at Work. A new
report on “Decent Work – Safe Work – HIV/AIDS” was issued on the
occasion, emphasizing the importance of workplace-related actions for
prevention, mitigation, care and support, and the elimination of stigma and
discrimination. Over 40 million people are currently HIV positive, and
over half of these are men and women in the economically active age group of
15 to 49. This is indeed a working-age pandemic. The ILO report
identifies the significant psycho-social issues that need to be addressed in
the workplace and highlights the importance of good management practices, as
described in the ILO Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management
Systems. (See http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/worldday/index.htm.)
On
a parallel track, the ICFTU spearheaded the Eleventh International
Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, also on April 28. In
tandem with the ILO, the ICFTU featured the theme of HIV/AIDS in the
workplace, calling for renewed action at the next G8 Summit in
Other
interesting AIDS developments include the announcement on 27 April of a new
charity by Prince Harry of the
3.
Global
Fund Board meeting
The
Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has met from
27 to 28 April. Most importantly, the Board decided that a new round of
grant proposals from countries fighting AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Sixth Round,
would be held in order to be able to approve a new round of grants at the next
meeting in November 2006.
This
new round of grant proposals is significant because many countries will be
nearing the end of their grants’ five-year period. This will allow
countries to continue the programs in which they are already involved in
solving the problems associated with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.
Grant
proposals will be submitted by countries to the Global Fund. They will
then be evaluated by an Independent Technical Review Panel. The
proposals that are cleared by the Panel based on quality standards are then
recommended to the Board of the Global Fund for approval. The programs
the Board approves are typically two years in length, with the option to renew
for another three years if results are underway. The deadline for
submitting grants for Round Six will be 3 August, and approvals will be made
from 1-3 November. The Board has also asked for donors to pledge enough
funds to ensure the success of Round 6 by the time of the meeting in November.
In
his annual report to the Board Executive Director Professor Richard Feacham
gave an outline and an update on the progress of the five corporate priorities
that he and the Secretariat have focused on in the last year. (See http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/files/boardmeeting13/GF-B13-3_Report_by_the_Executive_Director.pdf).
The first goal has been to develop the Global Fund’s Strategy by completing
a final draft of a comprehensive four-year plan identifying the size and
strategic positioning of the Global Fund, and most importantly, how to ensure
financial support for programs whose funding has run out.
The
second goal of the Secretariat has been to ‘scale up interventions and align
and harmonize policies.’ He remarked that, although the increasing impact of
the Global Fund is becoming well known, it is still important to work toward
increasing investments. The third goal that the Executive Director discussed
is “managing for results and measuring impact of investments”.
Securing
resources to meet needs in 2006 and 2007 is the fourth goal and enhancing
internal systems to ensure a high-performing, well-managed and efficient
Secretariat is the fifth.
In
a post script to his report he acknowledged his thanks to friends and
colleagues and referred to the work yet to be done with the hopes of
“handing over an effective, dynamic, ambitious, impatient, self-critical and
restless Global Fund to my successor”.
4.
Global
Compact Board and Foundation
Following
an extensive review during 2004-2005 the UN Secretary-General announced the
appointment of 20 members to the Board of the UN Global Compact on 20 April.
The new members, listed below, represent business worldwide (10 members),
business associations and labour groups (four), civil society organizations
(four) with two ex-officio members from the Global Compact Office and from the
newly launched Foundation for the Global Compact. Each of the members has an
established association with the Global Compact.
The
first annual meeting of the Board is due to take place this summer at the UN
Headquarters in
The new Foundation’s role is to raise funds for Global Compact operations from the private sector. It has three Directors - chaired by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart of Anglo-American plc, who is accompanied by James Kearney, Senior Partner of Latham & Watkins LLP and Professor Oliver Williams, Director of the Business and Ethics Centre at Mendoza College, University of Notre Dame. See www.unglobalcompact.org for more information.
Global
Compact Board:
Business
Mr.
Talal ABU GHAZALEH; Chairman and CEO, Talal Ghazaleh Organization,
Professor
José Sergio Gabrielli de AZEVEDO; President and CEO,
Mr.
Guillermo CAREY; Senior Partner, Carey &
Mrs.
CHEN Ying;
Mrs.
Suzanne Nora JOHNSON; Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs Group,
Ms.
Anne LAUVERGEON; Chair of the Executive Board,
Ms.
Ntombifuthi MTOBA; Chair of the Board,
Mr.
B. MUTHURAMAN; Managing Director,
Professor
Mads OEVLISEN; Adjunct Professor and Chair,
Mr.
Hiroyuki UEMURA; President, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co.,
International
Labour and Business Organizations
Mr.
Fred HIGGS; General Secretary, International Federation of Chemical, Energy,
Mine and General Workers’ Unions
Mr.
Antonio PENALOSA; Secretary-General, International Organization of Employers
Mr.
Guy RYDER; General Secretary, International Confederation of Free Trade Union
Mr.
Guy SEBBAN; Secretary-General, International Chamber of Commerce
Civil
Society
Mrs.
Habiba AL MARASHI; Chair, Emirates Environmental Group
Mr.
Oded GRAJEW; Chair of the Board, Instituto Ethos de Empresas e
Responsabilidade Social
Dr.
Huguette LABELLE; Chair, Transparency International
Mrs.
Mary ROBINSON; Chair, Realizing Rights - The Ethical Globalization Initiative
Ex-Officio
Sir
Mark MOODY-STUART; Chairman, Foundation for the Global Compact
Mr.
George KELL; Executive Head, UN Global Compact Office
5.
WIPO
on Patents, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore
The
World Intellectual Property Organization hosted a number of events in April
that show the continuing North/South divide on the global harmonization of
substantive patent law, the “Development Agenda” for intellectual property
rights, and the relationship of these rights to genetic resources, traditional
knowledge and folklore. As we reported in March (GSO
News, Vol. II, No. 2), WIPO held an Open Forum on the Substantive
Patent Law Treaty on 1 to 3 March, to serve as a channel for proposals
relating to the possibilities for harmonization of patent law. Forum
presenters and participants had some heated discussion about the interaction
between intellectual property rights and public health policy. On 10 to
12 April, an informal session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents
(SPC) met to prepare a work plan for harmonization. The informal session
ended in an impasse, and further efforts to proceed with patent law
harmonization had to be postponed until the WIPO Assemblies in September.
This means that the previously scheduled dates for starting on the plan of
work on 3 to 7 July have been cancelled.
The
One
tentative compromise would have connected the debate on patent harmonization
with the developing countries’ interest in a binding instrument to protect
genetic resources and traditional knowledge. A separate
Inter-Governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources,
Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) met at WIPO from 24 to 28 April, to
consider ways to integrate these concerns into WIPO policy. As
previously reported, the same concerns are being addressed at the TRIPS
Council at the World Trade Organization and the Conference of the Parties for
the Convention on Biodiversity. (See the March 2006 issue of GSO
News.) The main issues are establishing global requirements
for disclosure of the use of any genetic resources, traditional knowledge or
folklore in the substantive claims underlying a patent request and for
ensuring prior informed consent and benefit-sharing with the government of the
country from which these items are being taken for a patent application.
Critics of establishing such global requirements argue that existing contract
law is sufficient to ensure disclosure, prior informed consent and
benefit-sharing.
In
spite of differences about global or national action, the IGC has developed
two “mature drafts of revisions outlining objectives and principles for the
protection of traditional knowledge and folklore”. (See http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_pr_2006_446.html.)
Thus the IGC is edging towards a body of possible policy and legal measures
that could be and are already being used at either national or global levels
(or even regional levels, for that matter). But the debate on how to
handle genetic resources as promulgated in the Convention for Biodiversity
continues to lack a consensus. Meanwhile, the IGC has approved an
advisory board for a new Voluntary Fund for Indigenous and Local Communities.
The Voluntary Fund was set up with contributions from the French Government
and Swedish International Biodiversity Programme to make it possible for
people from indigenous and local communities to participate in IGC meetings.
The IGC itself will reach the end of its current mandate in 2007.
6.
WTO
negotiations update
After
a series of attempted negotiations on agriculture and manufacturing (“NAMA”
or non-agricultural manufacturing access) in March and the first few weeks of
April, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy participated in informal consultations
with key negotiators (the “Green Room” equivalent of an executive
committee) on Friday, 21 April and then with the heads of delegations of all
WTO member States with a presence in Geneva on Monday, 24 April. Lamy
then announced what everyone had already concluded, that the April 30 deadline
for “modalities” in agriculture and NAMA could not be met. Thus, the
mini-ministerial that was never really scheduled on the occasion of the April
30 deadline was “cancelled”, in spite of the official dissatisfaction of
the
Here
we limit our comments to some of the political dynamics that we see from our
multistakeholder GSO perspective. A special call for a meeting of the
Trade Negotiations Committee was issued for Monday, 1 May. Outgoing US
Trade Representative Robert Portman and US Trade Representative-designate
Susan Schwab announced plans to be in
As
stated by Lamy on Tuesday, 25 April, the key to moving forward rests with the
EU. He believes that the EU can “top up” its existing offer on
cutting agricultural tariffs. An improvement in the EU’s offer has
been the main condition from the G-20 before they are prepared to improve
their offer on NAMA. The EU has looked to the G20 to make the first
move, and last week Mandelson even suggested that it was the
The
anxieties of the NGOs were expressed in a letter to Director-General Lamy on
19 April, complaining about the “Green Room” process and limiting
negotiations to a few major players rather than the whole membership of the
WTO. The term “Green Room” refers to the colour of the
Director-General’s conference room in years gone by, a room that only
accommodates 20 or so people and a room that has typically been used to work
out the details of negotiations among “interested” parties, as selected by
the Director-General and/or the chairs of the negotiating committees involved.
Lamy defends the need for the Green Room process, since it is basically
impossible to involve all 149 members in all aspects of the negotiations.
The WTO does not have a representative governing body or executive committee,
and this ad hoc process is a necessary but discomforting alternative.
Some
of the NGOs, of course, want to slow down the process completely, not just
broaden the participatory framework. What is not clear is whether the
small and less developed countries that the NGOs are speaking up for are as
concerned as the NGOs are about the process. On the other hand, it is
Lamy’s view that technical support is being made available to calculate
impact on individual countries and that timely consultations will continue to
be carried out with all member States to allow for their own evaluation of the
modalities, schedules and related provisions. One hears quite a bit
about the importance both of capacity-building (Aid for Trade) and taking care
of the preferences and other special accommodations (special safeguard
mechanisms for sudden imbalances and provisions for special products, etc) for
the smaller developing countries who aren’t directly in the negotiating
room.
April
was a busy month for the issuance of WHO publications of note – the report
of the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public
Health, the annual World Health Report on “Working Together for Health,”
and new international “Child Growth Standards”.
The
CIPIH Report came out first, on 3 April, with considerable fanfare, as the
first report for WHO of this nature ever commissioned by the Member States. Delayed by more than four months because of disagreements among the Commission
members, the report contains over 50 recommendations but also some statements
of reservations from five of the ten Commissioners, although
the Chair of the Commission Ruth Dreifuss affirms in the Preface to the report
that all ten members of the Commission agreed with its recommendations.
One can identify certain ongoing and emerging issues that are likely to
stimulate serious policy deliberations at the WHO (and elsewhere), with some
of these issues continuing to be quite controversial. As the WHO
Director-General stated in January, this is “the first report for WHO of
this nature ever commissioned by Member States.” As noted by
Chairperson Ruth Dreifuss, there is a heightened international consciousness
about the negative correlation between health and poverty, along with the
possibility for additional financing for development enhanced by new
scientific advances and new institutional forms of health care. The recommendations include support for a new global plan of action to
encourage the development of health care products for neglected diseases,
revisions to the compulsory licensing provisions, new mechanisms for
public/private partnerships, government involvement in the pricing of health
care products in low and lower middle income countries, but they do not
challenge the basic value of intellectual property rights and innovation.
The recommendations will be tied to a draft resolution to be acted upon by a
“mini-Executive Board meeting” on 28 April and by the World Health
Assembly in May.
The
annual World Health Day was celebrated on 7 April at the World Health
Organization and around the world. The slogan of this year's World
Health Day was “Working Together for Health,” with the focus on the crisis
in the health workforce around the world. Problems such as clinics
without health workers and hospitals that cannot keep staff plague all
countries in the world. According to Dr. Tim Evans, Assistant
Director-General of Evidence and Information Policy at the WTO, “There is a
chronic global shortage of health workers, as a result of decades of under investment
in their education, training, salaries, working environment
and management. This has led to a severe lack of key skills, rising levels of
career switching and early retirement, as well as national and international
migration.”
On
7 April, attention was given to this crisis, with the main site of celebration
in
On
27 April, the WHO announced new international “Child Growth Standards” for
infants and young children up to age five. These standards were
developed through an extensive research project in
8.
The
GSO GAINs a New Neighbour
GSO
is pleased to note – and welcome - a new neighbour. As of 1 May the
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) moves into the same building
where the GSO is located, at 37/39 Rue de Vermont in
9.
Internet Governance
Forum Consultations
The
second round of multistakeholder consultations in preparation for the
forthcoming Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in
Additionally,
17 May is World
Information Society Day (WISD). There will be a ‘cluster’ of events the
week before, beginning 9 May, and the week after the WISD, culminating with
the second round of IGF consultations and the first meeting of the IGF
Advisory Group.
In
the meantime nominations have been submitted for candidates to the IGF
Advisory Group. Following suggestions at the initial IGF
consultations in February, the IGF Advisory Group will be a single,
multistakeholder advisory group to assist the IGF secretariat in their task of
forming the IGF event in October.
The
IGF Advisory Group will have around forty members, representing governments,
private sector and civil society as well as members of the academic and
technical communities. The first meeting of the Advisory Group will take place
from 22 to 23 May 2006 and will be open to relevant intergovernmental
organizations.
10.
Personnel
Changes
The
election of Dr Lieve Fransen as Vice Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to
fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was announced on 13 April after Prof.
Michel Kazatchkine, France's Ambassador on HIV/AIDS and Transmissible Diseases announced his resignation
in January. Dr. Lieve Fransen is Head of the Human and Social Development Unit
at the Directorate-General for Development of the European Commission. More
information about Dr. Fransen can be found at http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/media_center/press/an_060413.asp.
We
can confirm that the US seat on the Board has been filled by Dr. Bill Steiger,
Special Assistant to the Director of International Relations at the US
Department of Health and Human Services, following the promotion of Randall
Tobias from the US HIV/AIDS Coordinator to Deputy Secretary of State for
Development, a new post, in conjunction with his becoming the new
Administrator for the US Agency for International Development.
As
mentioned in the March issue of GSO News US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva
Kevin Moley will be leaving his post on 1 May and is due to be replaced by
Warren Tichenor. Tichenor is a wealthy media entrepreneur from
Meanwhile,
at the ILO, Executive Director Sally Paxton has announced her departure in
June. No announcement has been made about her successor, but the
At
the WIPO, Deputy Director-General for Copyright and Related Rights Rita Hayes
will also be leaving. The US Government has already nominated Michael
Keplinger to take her place. Keplinger is Senior Counsel in the Office
of International Relations of the US Patent and Trademark Office. The
Director-General and the WIPO Coordination Committee will finalize senior
management appointments at a meeting in June.
A
listing of events in May and June 2006 taking place in
29
April – 3 May WIPO
International Seminar on the Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for
Economic and Social Development (
1
May
WTO Trade Negotiation Committee
1-5
May
14th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and
Related Rights
1-19
May
36th Session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture
1-19
May
36th Session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights
1
May - 9 June
United Nations International Law Commission
3-4
May
WTO informal high-level bilaterals and possible “Green Room” discussions
3-5
May
13th Session of the WIPO Patent
Cooperation Treaty
8-12
May
UNCTAD 23rd Special Session of the Trade and Development Board
9
May
Elections to the Human Rights Council (
15
May
WTO General Council
15-19
May
ECOSOC 9th Session of the Commission on Science and Technology for
Development (administered by UNCTAD)
15
May – 2 June 42nd
Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
15
May – 30 June United Nations Conference on
Disarmament
17
May
World Information Society Day, theme ‘Promoting Global Cybersecurity’ AND
World Telecommunications Day
18-19
May
Conference on International Audiovisual Law: Film Distribution, New
Technology and Piracy (
19
May
Second round of consultations in preparation for the Internet Governance Forum
in
22
May
International Day for Biological Diversity, theme ‘Protect Biodiversity in
Drylands: Achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target!’
22-23
May
First meeting of the Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group
22-27
May
WHO 59th Session of the World Health Assembly
29-31
May
WHO X Session of the Executive Board
31
May
World No-Tobacco Day, theme ‘Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form or Disguise’
31
May-2 June
High-Level Meeting on AIDS, UN General Assembly (
31
May – 16 June ILO 95th Session of the
International Labor Conference
5
June
World Environment Day, theme ‘Deserts and Desertification: Don’t Desert
the Drylands!
12
and 16 June ILO 296th
Session of the Governing Body
12-23
June
UNDP and UNFPA Executive Board Meeting
16
June
United Nations Energy Security Forum
19
June
First session of the Human Rights Council begins
23
June
United Nations Executive Committee
27-29
June
60th Session of the Security Council Governing Council