GMW: Canada denies visa for chief African biosafety negotiator

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GMW: Canada denies visa for chief African biosafety negotiator

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 18 May 2005 15:05:48 +0100

 

 

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This is totally outrageous! Please read this important message from

Tewolde Egziabher.

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GENET-NEWS

 

Canada denies visa for chief African biosafety negotiator

SOURCE: Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia

DATE: 17 May 2005

 

It will be recalled that the final show down in the negotiations on the

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety involved a Canadian delegate

negotiating on behalf of the Miami Group (Canada, USA, Argentina,

Uruguay and

Chile), a European Commission delegate negotiating on behalf of the

European Union, and myself negotiating on behalf of the developing

countries

including China, with the exception of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. It

will also be recalled that the two main issues left pending during the

final negotiation session of the Protocol in 2000, to be negotiated and

settled soon after the Protocol comes into force, were identification

(labelling) (see Article 18.2 (a)) and liability and redress (See

Article 27).

 

The issue of identification has to be settled in COP/MOP 2 in Montreal,

30 May-3 June 2005, and I expect that the shape of the future

negotiations on liability and redress will be determined in the

preceding 3-day

meeting of the 1st Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group of Legal and

Technical Experts on Liability and Redress on 25 -27 May 2005. Both

meetings will take place in Montreal, Canada, in the territory of a

State which is not a Party to the Protocol.

 

I had planned to participate in these negotiations and continue with

trying to help finalize the unfinished business of protecting

biodiversity and human beings.

 

In a related forum under the auspices of the FAO, I helped negotiate

the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and

Agriculture as the chief negotiator of the African Group. In this

treaty also,

we have an unfinished business - that of negotiating a Material

Transfer Agreement to go with the Treaty.

 

On the 11th and 12th of May 2005 we were to have an African Preparatory

Meeting on the Material Transfer Agreement in Lusaka, Zambia. On the

19th

and 20th of May 2005 we were to have an inter-regional meeting on the

same issue in Oslo, Norway.

 

From Oslo, I was to travel to Montreal via London.

 

Based on these facts, I planned my travels and obtained all my visas

for Zambia, the Schengen States, and the United Kingdom and sent my

diplomatic passport to the Canadian Embassy in Addis Ababa for the

Canadian visa.

 

They gave me some highly complex forms to fill in. I filled them in.

The passport and the forms duly filled in were sent to the Canadian High

Commission in Nairobi by courier on 5 May 2005.

 

The Canadian High Commission sent me back even more complicated

additional forms to fill in. I filled them in immediately and sent

them back

on 10 May 2005 together with clear information on all my travel plans.

 

I should have left for Lusaka on 10 May 2005. So, I missed the African

Preparatory meeting on the Material Transfer Agreement of the

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and

Agriculture because

my passport was still in the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi.

 

Today is the 17th of May 2005. My passport returned from Nairobi and

was given to me this morning at 10:00 hrs. The British Airways flight

which

was to take me to Oslo had already left in the night. Therefore I will

not be able to attend the meeting in Oslo. My passport came back to me

without a Canadian visa. Therefore, I am not going to Montreal to

attend the liability and readdress and COP/MOP 2 negotiations either.

 

What a neat instrument of interfering with negotiations to which you

are not a party, refusing an entry visa has become!

 

My friends, we have passed various hurdles in assuring our rights for

fairness and justice in both the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and in

the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and

Agriculture.

 

I am writing this letter to you all for the following reasons:

 

1. I would like to urge you all Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on

Biosafety to continue withstanding the ex-Miami Group and insisting on:

a. Clear labelling on all genetically engineered commodities;

b. State liability in cases of damage to the environment and/or human

beings arising from products of genetic engineering;

c. Entitlement to full compensation in cases of damage to the

environment and/or human beings;

d. Burden of proof of any product of genetic engineering not being the

cause of damage resting on the country exporting that product;

e. Venue of litigation and enforcement of judgement being in the

country where the damage occurred and not in the country of export.

 

2. But, now that I have been prevented from coming to Montreal, who

knows which ones of you will be prevented next time? Should we allow the

country where our own Secretariat of the CBD is located to become the

sieve to let pass only those of us it wants to participate in

negotiations?

 

I protest, and I invite you to join me in the protest, to the

Government of Canada. If this act of sieving by Canada continues, I

suggest that

we

either move our Secretariat of the CBD elsewhere, or at least refuse to

hold any negotiation sessions in Canada.

 

3. I would like to urge you all my African and other friends in the

Material Transfer Agreement discussions to ensure a common understanding

on aiming at communally obtaining the benefits that the CBD entitles us,

i.e.

 

a) Research on the genetic resources accessed to be carried out " with

the full participation of " the Parties that need to develop their

capacities ( Art. 15.6);

b) Research to be carried out in the territories of the Parties that

need to develop their capacities (Art. 15.6);

c) Research results to be made available to Parties (Art.15.7);

d) Financial benefits to be shared with the Parties (Art.15.7);

e) Technologies generated to be transferred to the Parties (Art. 16);

f) The continuing right to revise the Material Transfer Agreement to be

maintained by the Parties to make it consistent with developments in

the

CBD, especially with the outcome of the ongoing negotiations on access

and benefit-sharing.

 

Of course, inspite of this present hindrance by the Canadian High

Commission in Nairobi, I will try to get on the processes with you at a

later stage.

 

Please, in the mean time, negotiate effectively.

 

With best wishes for you all,

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

 

cc:

- Dr. Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the CBD

secretariat

- The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Addis Ababa

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Addis Ababa

- Embassy of Canada, Addis Ababa

 

 

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