ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH

Intellectual Property

Sustainability

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Environment & Health

The United Nations is actively pursuing an agenda of global regulation in the areas of economic and social rights, particularly as they pertain to environmental rights and the right to health. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) facilitate the development of networks for the promotion and protection of these rights. The UN relies on a Matrix of Human Rights Governance Networks to create and manage the global regulation of environmental rights and the right to health. The ten human rights governance networks comprising the Matrix work in successive stages: the advocacy networks generate the idea for an emerging right; the research networks conduct research to support the right; the policy networks design policy; the standards-setting networks adopt the right as standard; the interpretive networks determine the nature and scope of the right; the explanatory networks explain the right; the implementation networks promotes legislation to protect the right; the assessment networks encourage respect for the right; the enforcement networks penalize the violators; and the funding networks help sustain one or more of the human rights governance networks comprising the Matrix.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

NGOs Fight Intellectual Property Rights

IP attaches stationed around the world by the US Patent and Trademark Office report that non-governmental organizations are playing a substantial role in attempting to undermine rights to intellectual property.

WIPO Official Argues for Rules-Based International Intellectual Property System

In a speech to the annual Assemblies of World Intellectual Property Organization member states, Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, said that new economic and technological realities require that a system of international rules on intellectual property be put in place in order to encourage innovation and create an "even playing field" among competitors.

Pharma Consultant Criticizes Merger of Policy Function into CSR Function

In a recent post on PharmExecBlog, Susan Crowley, a former Merck executive who now advises companies on global issues, explains the short-sightedness of the recent trend toward shifting responsibility for corporate global policy development and advocacy to corporate social responsibility departments that do not understand, and are not trained to adequately address, the complicated policy issues arising in the global economy.

HRC Resolution Challenges Intellectual Property Rights Protections

At its 20th Session, the UN Human Rights Council supported recommendations made by the UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Diversity that would shift the present approach to the protection of intellectual property to a "minimalist" approach that would treat IP as a "public good."

U.S. Lawmakers Defy Call for UN-led Internet Governance

At a hearing in Washington, DC, of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communication and Technology last week, there was bipartisan criticism of recent calls by Russia, China, and other countries to expand the UN International Telecommunication Union treaty to include internet governance.

SUSTAINABILITY

UN Body Pays China to Reduce Emissions

The UN's Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol will provide up to $380 million to China to fund the elimination of its production of ozone-depleting substances.

Oxfam Alarmed over Lack of "Climate Finance"

Oxfam has announced its concern over a reduction in the redistribution of funds to developing countries to deal with the effects of global warming.

Business Group Promotes "Natural Capital Management"

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Business coalition, an organization of 26 companies, has released a report calling for the use of "natural capital management," or pro-environment, principles in business decision-making.

NGO Leader Calls for International Climate "Justice"

The head of the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development suggests that reparations and "truth commissions" are appropriate answers to the impacts of climate change.

Organizations Oppose EU Cap and Trade

A group of environmental organizations argues that the EU's emissions trading scheme has failed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and should be abolished.