On August 11, 2003, around ten experts, scholars and officials
coming from Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan and Kunming gathered together at Sha
Tan Hotel, Beijing, discussing under the title: Trade Related IPR and
Farmers¡¯ Rights, focusing on the legal difinition of ¡°farmers¡¯ rights¡±,
the rights owner, related issues and strategy within China¡¯s present
legislations compared with international treaties and conversions. All
the participants shared their opinions, appealing to the public for more
attention, investigation on farmers¡¯ rights, and encouraging new
legislations. Prof. Dr. Zhou Lin and Dr. Zhang Lanying chaired the
seminar.
According to an explanation by FAO, farmers¡¯ rights refer to the
rights arising from the past, present and future contributions of
farmers in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic
resources, particularly those in the centres of origin or diversity. A
Chinese translation of the words ¡°farmers¡¯ rights¡± should reflect the
explanation by focusing on the rights of those contributors, not on the
(general) rights of farmers. The participants agree the words farmers
rights should be translated into Chinese as contributors¡¯ (for plant
genetic resources) rights. The key point of farmers¡¯ rights lay on the
compensation for the contributors. In a broad meaning, farmers¡¯ rights
should include those contributors for animal genetic resources, etc.
The seminar had a review of the history of the origin of farmers¡¯
rights and the development of the related international treaties and
conventions, an analysis of the issues of the present international
regulations of farmers¡¯ rights and their trends, a study of the
experience of the protection of farmers¡¯ rights in China and the
short-comings remained in China compared with the other countries. It
points out that there are really several rules concerning farmers¡¯
rights, but there lacks specific regulations for enforcing the rules.
The exist rules are falling behind the international trend to protect
farmers¡¯ rights.
The seminar took notice of that the present international IPR
system, especially the patent system have some harms towards farmers¡¯
rights in several aspects. Some of the big companies in the developed
countries keep some of the related key patens and stretch their power to
the developing countries. They make big profit while refuse to
compensate the contributors of the plant genetic resources. China, as a
country full of plant genetic resources, should take good measures to
protect her plant genetic resources. If not, the plant genetic resources
could be loss or missing, and the present un-justice could cause more
limitations or obstacles for China¡¯s agriculture industry.
This seminar is meant for uniting all the people who have interests
in the work of protecting farmers¡¯ rights, cause the attention of the
public, and encouraging the possible legislations in China. For this
purpose, the participants appeal that: to take an investigation of the
real situations of farmers¡¯ rights in China and the plant genetic
resources in China; based on this investigation, to lobby the
authorities to pay more attention to the farmers¡¯ rights and draft new
legislation to protect the farmers¡¯ rights; to participate the dialogue
in the international stage and give a good influence in amending or
drafting international treaties or conventions. |