The author writes that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is firmly located in an old ethical order which puts profit over people; where those in power make the rules to suppress the powerless; and where this iniquitous and unjust world “order” (disorder) is legitimised by the ideology of neoliberalism. He states that progressive people must defy this iniquitous system and overturn it as it is not reformable. He observes that it is one that could be neutralised if Africa was united to challenge the WTO and the "Big and Powerful". At the Seattle WTO Ministerial in November 1999 Africa and the global South neutralised the WTO with the help of world peoples' movements fighting for justice for the weak in the international trading system. The Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) of the WTO in Nairobi is not just Africa’s war. Trade negotiations in Geneva are said to be carried out in a "surreal" atmosphere where the forest is missed for the trees. In this piece the author argues that the Nairobi negotiations will be behind closed doors where the 'Empire' will use all means at its command to secure a "consensus" that serves its interest and where those from the grassroots resist being drawn into that consensus if that does not do justice to grassroots people and communities. He notes that economics is girded firmly in the politics of power and that power, in turn, is legitimised by an ideology, in this case the ideology of neoliberalism. Those who are fighting for justice thus have to tackle all three levels – economic, political and ideological.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
This report aims to inform the ongoing discussions and processes on developing a new business model for antibiotics. It is based on the premise that delinkage, seeking to separate the return on investment from antibiotic sales volume, should be the principle underpinning any new business model. It calls on governments to invest significantly in antibiotic R&D by financing a broad menu of incentives across the antibiotic life-cycle, with the highest incentives targeted at the development of antibiotics directed at the greatest health threats arising from antibiotic resistance. Contributions from countries should be coordinated within a globally agreed framework. Finally, global access should, together with conservation, be a priority for any new business model fostering innovation. The report makes several recommendations based on findings. The authors suggest that a new business model needs to be developed in which the return on investment in R&D on antibiotics is delinked from the volume of sales.There should be increased public financing of a broad menu of incentives across the antibiotic life-cycle is required, targeted at encouraging the development of antibiotics to counter the greatest microbial threats. The assessment of current and future global threats arising from resistance should be updated periodically in order to identify which classes of product are a priority for incentives. The delinkage model should prioritize both access and conservation. Domestic expenditures on the model need to be globally coordinated, including through the establishment of a secretariat, and global participation in the model is the ultimate goal.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of right to culture recommended a new intellectual property regime for pharmaceutical products stressing that there is no human right to patent protection. This recommendation was made in the report to the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The Special Rapporteur recommended that “the United Nations should convene a neutral, high-level body to review and assess proposals and recommend a new intellectual property regime for pharmaceutical products that is consistent with international human rights law and public health requirements, and simultaneously safeguards the justifiable”. This is drawn from the recommendation of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law appointed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The report also recommends that states have a positive obligation to provide for a robust and flexible system of patent exclusions, exceptions and flexibilities based on domestic circumstances, including through the establishment of compulsory and government use licences when needed. The report further argues that states have a human rights obligation not to support, adopt or accept intellectual property rules, such as TRIPS-Plus provisions, that would impede them from using exclusions, exceptions and flexibilities and thus from reconciling patent protection with human rights. International agreements that do not provide sufficient flexibility should be renounced or modified. The report highlights Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which ensure that measure be put in place to ensure affordability of and access to technologies essential to life and realisation of all human rights.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is holding with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) an African ministerial conference on intellectual property (IP), in Senegal, November 3-5, in cooperation with the African Union (AU) and the Government of Senegal. The ministerial conference on ‘IP for an Emerging Africa” aims to “explore the opportunities as well as the challenges facing Africa in building a vibrant innovation system and in effectively using the IP system,” according to meeting’s provisional programme. The authors argue that the ministers should embrace a balanced and development-oriented approach to intellectual property. Such an approach ought to take into account the needs, priorities and socio-economic circumstances of African countries as well as the most recent empirical evidence on the dynamics of intellectual property and innovation on the continent.
The mining industry in South Africa is argued by the authors to contribute significantly to the hardship experienced by black women in rural areas of South Africa. For decades, mining houses have drawn in young black men for labour. Those who have contracted the preventable but incurable lung disease, silicosis, come home to die a slow and painful death. It is then the women in rural communities who are left to provide support and care under the most adverse conditions. As part of its efforts to support pending litigation against the mining industry to secure long overdue compensation to mineworkers who contracted silicosis and for the women who took care of them, Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) has been conducting research in the rural Eastern Cape. The research is making visible how the gold mining industry’s failure to prevent silicosis has forced rural black women further into the margins of society. There are several ongoing cases on this. The Legal Resources Centre, Richard Spoor Attorneys and Abrahams Kiewitz are representing 56 applicants in a class action lawsuit where current and former mineworkers and surviving dependants of mineworkers who died from the disease are demanding their right to compensation for silicosis and TB contracted in mines. The case will be heard in the South Gauteng High court in October 2015.
Rising inequality, along with financial deregulation, has spurred the significant increase in global debt levels. Although much of the media spotlight has focused on Greece recently, the fact is that more than 90 countries are either in or at risk of a new debt crisis. This articles presents the executive summary of a new report by the Jubilee Debt Campaign which highlights this phenomenon. Debt crises have become dramatically more frequent across the world since the deregulation of lending and global financial flows in the 1970s. An underlying cause of the most recent global financial crisis, which began in 2008, was the rise in inequality and the concentration of wealth. This made more people and countries more dependent on debt, and increased the amount of money going into speculation on risky financial assets. International debt has been increasing since 2011, after falling from 2008-11. The total net debts owed by debtor countries, by both their public and private sectors, which are not covered by corresponding assets owned by those countries, have risen from $11.3 trillion in 2011 to $13.8 trillion in 2014. We at the Jubilee Debt Campaign predict that in 2015 they will increase further to $14.7 trillion. Overall, net debts owed by debtor countries will therefore have increased by 30% - $3.4 trillion - in four years. Alongside this increase in global debt levels, there is also a boom in lending to impoverished countries, particularly the most impoverished - those called 'low-income' by the World Bank. Foreign loans to low-income-country governments trebled between 2008 and 2013, driven by more 'aid' being provided as loans - including through international financial institutions, new lenders such as China, and private speculators searching overseas for higher returns because of low interest rates in Western countries.
World Action on Salt and Health (WASH), with the support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa, has conducted a survey which investigated the salt content of 387 popular kid’s meal combinations. The study found that of all countries surveyed, South Africa’s brand chicken burger and chips aimed at children, have the highest salt content of all kiddies chicken burgers globally (more than ½ a teaspoon) per meal. The study also warns that too much salt in childhood, habituates children to the taste of salt, which could increase their blood pressure, and lead to strokes and heart failure later in life. “With South Africa having one of the highest rates of high blood pressure worldwide and 1 in 10 children already suffering from high blood pressure, we simply cannot afford to allow such high levels of salt in popular children’s meals,” argues Christelle Crickmore, science and programme development manager at WASH.
Privatisation of the Ugandan electricity sector, initiated in 1999 as a condition of the debt relief programme, was supposed to mean the end of state support. Yet, by 2013 a special committee of the Ugandan Parliament reported that subsidies were higher than ever before, preventing the government supporting critical development programmes. Between 2005 and 2012 the government had paid out subsidies totalling $600m to the privatised companies, alongside nearly $300m in rebates for ‘losses’ under their deal with the new electricity distribution company. An independent report is calling for the plant to be brought into public ownership because
“The high cost of electricity in Uganda has reached unsustainable levels that are severely eroding local industries’ competitiveness and domestic consumers’ disposable income”. The head of the government-owned Uganda Electricity Generation Company, has confirmed that discussions are ongoing to explore the viability of this proposal, which is designed to rein in costs and re-establish a degree of sovereign control over Uganda’s national energy sector.
Developing countries stressed the need for a balanced approach to patents to ensure public health and development interests at the 22nd session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Nigeria on behalf of the African Group stated that it recognises the instrumental role of the SCP in building knowledge, understanding the application of various patent related norms and effective use of the international patent system. However, Nigeria pointed out that SCP’s activities “include enabling factors encapsulated in the Development Agenda Recommendations, with the objective of enhancing patent related uses for social, technological and economic development and noted their disposition to actively engage within the SCP, on identified issues that support the objectives of the region, giving due regard to the different levels of development of WIPO Member States”. It stressed that the “policy space for Member States will therefore be of utmost relevance in SCP discussions and their outcomes”. Pakistan on behalf of the Asia Pacific Group (Japan is not part of the Group) stressed the need for balanced discussions on all topics on the agenda. It stated that, “ The work of this committee is critical in balancing the rights of patent owners and public interest particularly in the area of public health, technology transfer and patent flexibilities. It is essential to find the right balance between patent rights and the right to health in light of the differences in the levels of social, economic and technological development among members, TRIPS flexibilities and respect for intellectual property law and the needs of all Member States”. It further stated that the balanced approach to patents “not only allow governments, especially in resource-constrained countries, with the necessary policy space to meet health needs but also promote further innovation”. Brazil on behalf of GRULAC stated that it was “important for Member States to learn from each other’s experiences and practices under these two topics. While acknowledging similar practices in some countries, it is important to recognise that IP policies and legislation should address national economic and scientific issues as well as development concerns”. Third World Network remarked that 22nd Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents is taking place exactly after the 20th year of the TRIPS Agreement. During the last twenty years there is plenty of evidence to show that the TRIPS Agreement has failed to fulfil its promises especially in the context of addressing developmental challenges of developing countries.
In South Africa, at a time when National Health Insurance should be generously funded (7 years after its approval as public policy by the ruling party), the author argues in this paper that state fiscal austerity appears certain to nip the initiative in the bud. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund issued separate reports about South Africa in late 2014, following a new finance minister's mid-term budget speech. In justifying austerity, they revealed 2 important conceptual blockages regarding inequality and international financial relations, giving neoliberal policy advocates intellectual weaponry to impose deeper austerity. In contrast, it is suggested that a "united front" of labour, community-based and social movement activists, along with a vigorous left opposition party in Parliament, could ensure that the class struggle ratchets up in intensity in the years ahead.