Natural Justice to Host Pan African Indigenous and Local Community Meeting

Natural Justice will be hosting the Pan African Indigenous and Local Community Meeting in September 2010. The Indigenous Information Network will be a partnering organization and the Meeting will be supported by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa. The Meeting which will take place over 3 days will bring together around 50 representatives of indigenous and local communities across Africa and will review the outcomes of the 9th Meeting of the Working Group on ABS. The Meeting will also strategize the way forward leading to the 10th Meeting of the Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity that will take place in October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan. The Meeting will also focus on the development of sui generis systems and rights based approaches for the protection of traditional knowledge and biological diversity stewarded by communities in Africa.

Pan African Responsibilities

Kabir Bavikatte as per the request of the chairperson of the African Group of ABS negotiators developed a briefing document on ABS for African ministers who will be attending the Pan African Ministerial Conference in Windhoek from the 8th to 10th of March 2010. Kabir Bavikatte as the team-leader of the African team of drafters along with Olivier Rukundo an associate of Natural Justice, has helped prepare briefing documents for the African Group of negotiators to aid them in their preparations for the 9th Meeting of the Working Group on ABS to be held in Cali, Colombia from the 22nd to the 28th of March 2010.

Natural Justice Active in Montreal: Kabir Bavikatte's Report

Kabir Bavikatte supported the African Group as its legal advisor in the negotiations within the Working Group on Article 8j and the Working Group on ABS. Specifically Kabir worked with the African Group in identifying key aspects from the report of the Expert Group on Traditional Knowledge associated with Genetic Resources to be highlighted by the Working Group on 8j and to be considered in its negotiations by the Working Group on ABS. Kabir also supported the African Group in the negotiations towards developing an Ethical Code of Conduct to Ensure Respect for the Cultural and Intellectual Heritage of Indigenous and Local Communities. During the negotiations of the Working Group on ABS, Kabir specifically supported the African Group in the negotiations relating to Compliance and Traditional Knowledge elements of the potential International Regime on ABS.

Two side events on TK Commons were hosted by Natural Justice and IDLO. The format for both was the same and Kabir presented at both. Also at the side event by Brendan Tobin, Kabir presented on Human Rights and Biocultural Protocols. Natural Justice jointly hosted it with the Irish Center for Human Rights.

Close of WG ABS 8

The WG on ABS closed today, 15 November after a slow but potentially constructive week. More work is needed if the Nagoya deadline is to be met, and with that in mind, two meetings of Friends of the Co-Chairs have been scheduled for the intersessional period before ABS 9 which is to be held in Colombia in March 2010. Click here for a report of ABS 8

Picture: L-R: Harry Jonas, Barbara Lassen of GTZ, Elan Abrell and Johanna von Braun, both of Natural Justice

Natural Justice Activities at WG ABS 8, Montreal

Harry Jonas presented at a side event on bio-cultural protocols on Wednesday 11 November. The side event was introduced by Balakrishna Pisupati (UNEP-DELC) who also launched a community protocols website developed by Natural Justice. The other speakers were Ana Persic(UNESCO), Barbara Lassen (GTZ) and Brendan Tobin (Irish Centre for Human Rights). Kabir Bavikatte spoke at a side event on Thursday hosted by the Irish Centre for Human Rights and included presentations by Joji Carino (Tebtebba) and Brendan Tobin.

Publishing activities:

In addition, Natural Justice made three submissions to ECO, a publication of the CBD Alliance. The following are links to those articles:

1) ABS (1) Towards a traditional knowledge commons;

2) Intervention by Natural Justice on behalf of Civil Society Organizations on Capacity Building
ABSWG-8, Montreal, Canada - 9 Nov 2009

3) ABS (3) Article by Johanna von Braun and Kabir Bavikatte: No narrowing of the definition of TK

Furthermore, an article written by Natural Justice was published in Square Brackets, the CBD newsletter for civil society on biocultural community protocols.

Statement on Capacity Building

Harry Jonas made a statement in plenary on behalf of the civil society organizations present at the Working Group. The statement underscores that indigenous peoples and local communities are the lynchpin of the CBD and that they are best placed to determine the merits of any interventions on their lands or regarding their TK. In this regard, indigenous and local communities have a right to demand locally relevant capacity development.

Publishing Activity

In the latest edition, November 2009, of [Square Brackets], which is a newsletter focussing on the CBD and civil society, an article written by Natural Justice was published. The edition of the newsletter was published to coincide with the current negotiations of the Working Group on ABS. The article can be read here:
Bio-cultural Community Protocols as a Community-based Approach to Ensuring the Local Integrity of Environmental Law and Policy

Working Group on ABS

Natural Justice is at the 8th meeting of the Working Group on ABS (ABS 8) being held in Montreal. ABS 8 is addressing the nature of the regime, TK, capacity building, compliance, access and benefit sharing. Kabir Bavikatte continues to advise the African Group to ensure that the future regime is calibrated to contribute to the MDGs in Africa, including tangible environmental and social outcomes. Johanna von Braun, Elan Abrell and Harry Jonas are working within the CBD (NGO) Alliance to maintain pressure on parties to broker a comprehensive and legally binding international regime on ABS. Natural Justice will also be involved in a number of side events including on the Vilm workshop on TK, the TK commons and bio-cultural community protocols.

Participating in Regional and International Meetings, Part One

Kabir Bavikatte participated as a resource person for at the Pan African Indigenous and Local Community Workshop in Nairobi from the 14th to the 17th of September 2009. The goal of the workshop was capacity development of African indigenous and local community representatives. Kabir presented to the community representatives the draft of the African operational text on traditional knowledge and capacity building that would be negotiated in Montreal in November at the 8th meeting of the Working Group on ABS. The community representatives made a number of comments and recommendations to the operational text which was incorporated in the draft by Kabir as the leader of the drafting team. Kabir also made presentations on the importance and development of biocultural protocols and the traditional knowledge commons both of which were received very enthusiastically by the African community representatives at the workshop.

Kabir Bavikatte also participated as a resource person in the ABS Capacity Development Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa held in Addis Ababa from the 28th of September to the 2nd of October 2009. Kabir presented on the challenges of documenting traditional knowledge and the concerns of indigenous and local communities regarding the pre, during and post documentation processes. The Addis workshop was attended by multiple stakeholders including representatives of government who engaged in a lively discussion on the challenges of documenting traditional knowledge.