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Global Coalition to Stop Life Patents

12 Feb 2002

HUNDREDS OF NGOS FROM MORE THAN 50 NATIONS
ANNOUNCE SUPPORT OF A TREATY TO ESTABLISH
THE GENE POOL AS A GLOBAL COMMONS

BIOTECH ACTIVISTS TO CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT
AND CORPORATE CLAIMS ON PATENTS ON LIFE

TREATY INITIATIVE ANNOUNCED IN NEW YORK
AND PORTO ALEGRE

(New York) February 1, 2002 - Biotech activists from more than 50
nations announced today their support for a treaty which would establish
the earth's gene pool as a global commons. Non-Governmental
Organizations' (NGOs) leaders say they will challenge government
and corporate claims on patents on life in every country. The treaty is
the first globally coordinated campaign among biotech activists, and
already has the support of over 250 organizations.

The Treaty Initiative is being announced simultaneously in New York
at the United Nations preparatory meetings for the Rio Plus 10 meeting,
and in Porto Alegre, Brazil at the World Social Forum.

Activists will be working with political parties to introduce the Treaty
Initiative in parliaments around the world over the next year. In September
2002, activists will demand that governmental delegates to the Rio 10
Conference in South Africa endorse the Treaty to Share the Genetic
Commons and make it the centerpiece of future biodiversity efforts.

Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in
Washington, DC, says, "The gene pool should not be allowed to be
claimed as commercially negotiable genetic information or intellectual
property by governments, commercial enterprises, other institutions or
individuals. The global gene pool is a shared legacy and, therefore, a
collective responsibility." Mr Rifkin added, "A global treaty to share the gene
pool is the most important task ahead of us as we make the transition into
the Age of Biology."

The Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons aims to prohibit
all patents on plant, microorganism, animal, and human life.

"Currently, under the protection of the WTO, multinational corporations
are exploiting critical genetic resources for private gain," says Kristin
Dawkins, Vice President of Global Programs at the Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy. "This ground-breaking global initiative represents
a major new effort by NGOs to work within the existing global system to
change international law so that it works for all people."

"Biodiversity has been the base of agriculture and food security for
10,000 years," says Elizabeth Brazo, of Accion Eco Log Ica (Ecuador).
"The use of intellectual property rights has prevented this generation of new
biodiversity. In fact, we are losing genetic diversity every day."

"The exploitation of genetic material that permits human life would
change forever the potential of mankind, said Bill Christison, President of
the National Family Farm Coalition which is the U.S. member of Via
Campesina.

"A major theme supported by farmers and peasants in Via Campesina is
that the world is not for sale and certainly this includes the gene pools
of the people of the world."

Eighteen organizations, including the Foundation on Economic Trends,
the International Forum on Globalization, and the National Family Farm
Coalition in the US, Centro de Educacion y Tecnología in Chile,
Comitato Scientifico Antivivisezionista in Italy, the Indigenous Peoples'
Biodiversity Network in Peru, Southeast Asia Regional Institute for
Community Education (SEARICE) in the Philippines, the Community
Technology Development Trust in Zimbabwe, and Via Campesina have formed an
international committee working to create a civil society process
which would lead to the presentation of the Treaty to governments at the
Rio 10 Conference in South Africa in the fall.

"This treaty is designed to ensure that governments and Indigenous
Peoples are the caretakers of their part of the genetic commons and to
establish the appropriate statutory mechanisms needed to ensure both
sovereignty and open access to the worlds genetic diversity," says Hope
Shand, of ETC Group (formerly RAFI).

- 30 -
For more information: Bill Christison, National Family Farm Coalition,
660-646-9003
Kristin Dawkins, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 612-203-
5648
Julie Delahanty, ETC, 613-262-8519.
Kathy Ozer, National Family Farm Coalition, 202-421-4544.

To read the Treaty, go to: www.tradeobservatory.org ------------