ISIS Press Release 20/05/05
ISIS report
Canada Denies Visa for Africa’s Chief Biosafety and
Biodiversity Negotiator
Interference with international negotiations has plumbed new
depths Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher from Ethiopia – Tewolde to his
friends - African Union’s chief spokesperson and negotiator for the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was denied a visa to enter Canada for a crucial
conference of the parties and preceding working group meeting, which will take
place in Montreal between 25 May and 3 June. Canada is not a Party to the
Biosafety Protocol. The meetings are expected to shape the controversial issues
of identification (labelling) of genetically modified products, and liability
and redress in case of damages caused.
These issues were left outstanding at the final show-down in the 3-way
negotiations on the Cartagena Protocol in Montreal in 2000: the Canadian
delegate, negotiating on behalf of the Miami Group (Canada, USA, Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile); Tewolde, negotiating on behalf of the developing countries
including China, (with the exception of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile); and the
European Commission delegate negotiating on behalf of the European Union. An
impassioned, historic speech by Tewolde broke the deadlock; and the European
Commission delegate came down on the side of the Africans and developing
countries. Agreement was reached, leaving identification, and liabilities and
redress to be negotiated and settled soon after the Protocol comes into force.
Five years later, however, these issues remain unresolved.
Tewolde is also the chief negotiator for the African Union on the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
(ITPGRFA) under the auspices of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation. Apart from attending the biosafety meetings in Montreal, he was
also due to attend, on the same trip, equally important meetings on ITPGRFA in
Lusaka, Zambia, and Oslo, Norway. In this treaty too, there is the unfinished
business of negotiating a Material Transfer Agreement defining the terms under
which research materials are exchanged between nations.
Tewolde’s troubles began when he applied for a visa from the
Canadian Embassy in Addis Ababa. They gave him "some highly complex forms",
which he filled in, and the forms and his passport were sent to the Canadian
High Commission in Nairobi by courier on 5 May 2005. But the Canadian High
Commission sent him back "even more complicated additional forms to fill in,"
which he duly did, and immediately sent the forms back on 10 May 2005, together
with clear information on all his travel plans. By then, he had already missed
his meeting in Lusaka.
On 17 May, his passport was returned, without a Canadian visa. By then,
he his flight for Oslo had departed without him.
It was only then that Tewolde wrote a public letter addressed to the
delegates of both meetings (http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5255),
revealing the full sequence of events that resulted in his absences.
"What a neat instrument of interfering with negotiations to which you
are not a party, refusing an entry visa has become!" Tewolde declared. "But,
now that I have been prevented from coming to Montreal, who knows which ones of
you will be prevented next time?"
He is protesting to the government of Canada, and invites everyone to
do the same. He also suggests moving the Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) out of Canada, or at least refuse to hold any
negotiation sessions in Canada. Both the Cartagena Protocol and the ITPGRFA are
negotiated under the CBD.
To his fellow delegates to the Cartagena Protocol Conference of the
Parties on Biosafety, he has this to say:
"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.
Tewolde also urges all his African and other friends in the Material
Transfer Agreement discussions of the ITPGRFA, "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."
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is necessary for protecting the
public from the hazards of GM products, while the ITPGRFA is the key to
protecting indigenous genetic resources from being expropriated by corporations
in the name of carrying out scientific research. The piracy and patenting of
genetic resources is the greatest threat to food sovereignty and food
security.
Tewolde is clearly not giving up. He ends with this message for his
friends: "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."
Tewolde is also President of the Sustainable World Global Initiative
recently launched by ISIS and ISP
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SustainableWorldInitiativeF.php
Please send your protest together with this report to:
Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Email:
Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca Telephone
(613) 995-8872 Fax: (613) 995-9926
Hon. Andy Mitchell ,Minister of
Agriculture and Agri-Food,
Mitchell.A@parl.gc.ca Telephone:(613)
996-3434 Fax: (613) 991-2147
Hon. Stéphane Dion, Minister of
the Environment, stephane.dion@ec.gc.ca
Telephone:
(613) 996-5789 Fax: (613) 996-6562
Hon. Hon. Joseph Volpe, Minister of
Citizenship and Immigration,
Volpe.J@parl.gc.ca Telephone: (613)
992-6361 Fax: (613) 992-9791
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