Every year, usually in February but sometimes in March, the celebration of Mardi Gras (Carnival) reaches its crescendo. Especially popular in the Americas, huge Mardi Gras celebrations take place every year in places ranging from Brazil to Colombia, Trinidad, Mexico, and the US.
UPOV will be meeting in Geneva for its Autumn session from 13th to 17th October 2014. Its Administrative and Legal Committee (CAJ) will meet on 13th October, the Administrative and Legal Committee Advisory Group (CAJ-AG) on 14th and 17th October, the Consultative Committee (CC) on 15th October while its highest decision-making body, the UPOV Council on 16th October. The meetings of the CAJ-AG and the CC are closed to observers.
Key upcoming issues:
In a letter dated 18th September 2014 NGOs from around the world have asked Dr. Shakeel Bhatti, the Secretary to the International Treaty to reconsider his approach to implementing paragraph 3 of Resolution 8/2013 (adopted in September 2013) concerning implementation of Farmers Rights (Article 9) of the Treaty. Paragraph 3 of Resolution 8/2013 requests the Secretary to “to invite UPOV and WIPO to jointly identify possible areas of interrelations among their respective international instruments”.
On 5th September 2014, the Congress of Guatemala repealed plant variety legislation that would have allowed Guatemala to accede to UPOV 1991. This legislation passed by Congress in June has sparked massive protests from farmers' organizations, indigenous movements and civil society. The revocation of the legislation also known as "Monsanto Law" follows a decision taken on 29 August by the Constitutional Court to suspend the law based on demands of different farmer and civil society organisations.
For news reports see:
Civil society groups continue to protest against the Plant Variety Protection Bill, which is modeled on UPOV 1991. Previously farmer, labour unions, religious, political and civil society organisations have had street demonstration against the adoption of the Bill, expressing serious concerns over the lack of public consultation, the content of the Bill (in particular the undermining of farmers' rights), and Ghana's intention to join UPOV 1991. For the latest see:
by Bram De Jonge, in: Journal of Politics and Law; Vol. 7, No. 3; 2014
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).
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.