Intellectual Property Rights

Hidden Hunger, Hidden Danger
Access to generic vitamin and mineral supplements in developing countries constrained by trade rules

The latest estimates are that over two billion people in the world suffer some micronutrient deficiencies, often referred to as “hidden hunger.” The main sustainable solution is to ensure adequate public health interventions, including clean water, sanitation and hygiene as well as healthy, diverse diets for all.

Put People Not ‘Empire of Capital’ at Heart of Development

President Rafael Correa Delgado of Ecuador does not mince words when it comes to development. ”Neoliberal policies based on so-called competitiveness, efficiency and the labour flexibility framework have helped the empire of capital to prosper at the cost of human labour,” he told a crowded auditorium at the 15th Raul Prebitsch Lecture.


Obama’s Free Trade Strategy Falters in Asia

Amid simmering territorial conflicts across the Western Pacific, specifically between China and its neighbours in the South and East China Seas, coupled with China rising to the rank of top trading partner with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Obama administration has been hard-pressed to re-assert its strategic footprint in the region.

Drought Hits Policies

Drought has dramatically increased as a consequence of climate change. Most countries react to it only after it has occurred, but don’t have national policies to prevent it. The high-level meeting on national drought policies in Geneva this week is trying to match scientific knowledge with political awareness.

Structure of the BRCA1 protein. Credit: emw/creative commons

U.S. Court Upholds Status Quo on Gene Patents

Is a gene more like a tree trunk or more like a baseball bat? A federal court Thursday took a stand on the question, ruling that isolated DNA molecules are “not found in nature", and are therefore more like inventions, such as baseball bats, than natural phenomenon, such as tree trunks.

Mexican Activists Defend Internet Freedom

Mexican advocates of internet freedom are mobilising to protest their government's decision to sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multilateral treaty whose stated aim is to protect intellectual property right through enhanced international cooperation and enforcement.

Could Europe’s Anti-Counterfeiting Pact be a “Pandora’s Box” of Rights Violations?

Foggy details surrounding Europe’s anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) have divided pubic opinion, with activists on one end of the spectrum claiming it to be the end of Internet freedom and the generic drug market, while proponents continue to defend the act as a “modest” agreement to protect Europe’s intellectual property.



the art of discarding