Think-Tanks

Right to Health Must Prevail Over All Property Rights

By South Centre*

GENEVA (IDN-INPS | South Bulletin) – A High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines convened by the UN Secretary-General is currently considering a number of proposals to address the policy incoherence between intellectual property (IP) rights, human rights, trade rules and access to medicines.

The final report of the High-Level Panel will be submitted to the UN Secretary-General, who will present the report to the UN General Assembly to take further action.

The South Centre has made the following three contributions (Nos 67, 112 and 113) to the Panel based on the premise that the right to health for all must prevail over trade and intellectual property rules.

: South Centre; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 29 June 2016

Photo: The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 198. Credit: UN

The Right to Development: 30 Years On

Viewpoint by Marin Khor *

This article is based on the text of a speech at a panel discussion at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 15 June 2016.

GENEVA (IDN | South Centre) - The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1986 (as Document 41/128) is 30 years old. It is appropriate to celebrate this anniversary. For the right to development has had great resonance among people all over the world, including in developing and poor countries. Even the term itself “the right to development” carries a great sense and weight of meaning and of hope.

: Martin Khor; OPINION; 18 June 2016

Image credit: Don Stalons - phil.cdc.gov

Antibiotics Threatening to Become Useless

Viewpoint by Martin Khor *

Antibiotics – also called antibacterials – revolutionized medicine in the 20th century. Their effectiveness and easy access led to overuse, especially in livestock raising, prompting bacteria to develop resistance. This has led to widespread problems with antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance, so much as to prompt the World Health Organization to classify antimicrobial resistance as a "serious threat [that] is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country". - Editor

GENEVA (IDN | SOUTHNEWS) - Antibiotic resistance – a process by which antibiotics no longer work because bacteria have become resistant to them – has climbed up the global agenda because of growing awareness of the immense threat this poses to human health and survival.

: Martin Khor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 17 May 2016

South-South Cooperation in the Face of Declining North-South Collaboration

Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), hosted a Conference on South-South Cooperation in New Delhi on March 10-11, 2016. About 350 delegates representing 62 countries participated in the conference, which demonstrated both the maturity of South-South Cooperation and the creative challenges that lie ahead.

By Rajni Bakshi

NEW DELHI (INPS | Gateway House) - The Conference on South-South Cooperation, held at Habitat Centre in New Delhi, was designed specifically as a platform for developing countries to collectively review the new landscape for South-South Cooperation (SSC), on their own terms, in the context of three major multi-lateral events of 2015: the United Nations’ Finance for Development conference, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Climate Change Summit in Paris.

: Gateway House; FOREIGN AID; South-South Cooperation; 24 March 2016

Argentine President Mauricio Macri with First Lady. | Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Argentina’s Deal Calls for a Debt Workout Mechanism

Analysis by Yuefen Li*

GENEVA (INPS | South Centre) - Argentina signed an agreement in principle on February 29, 2016 with four “super holdout” hedge funds including NML Capital Ltd, Aurelius Capital, Davidson Kempner and Bracebridge Capital. Buenos Aires would pay them a total of about $4.65 billion, amounting to 75 percent of the principal and interest of all their claims of Argentina’s bonds that were defaulted on during the 2001 debt crisis.

The payment is to be made in cash before April 14, 2016, provided that Argentina's Congress approves the repeal of Argentina's domestic laws, namely the Lock Law and the Sovereign Payment Law, which prohibit the country from proposing terms to the holdouts that are better than those Argentina offered to its creditors in earlier restructurings.

: South Centre; SYNDICATION; Think-Tanks; 05 March 2016

Counter-terrorism - South East Asian Style

At the recent counter-terrorism conference in Jaipur, a star-studded galaxy of policy makers, security analysts and law enforcement officials debated on tackling the Daesh threat. Some of the most positive steps to counter the terror propaganda came from South East Asia and India’s neighbourhood

By Sameer Patil

“कोई बेगुनाह फंसे नहीं, और कोई गुनहगार बचे नहीं (No innocent should suffer and no guilty should escape),” will be the cornerstone of India’s counter-terrorism policy, as stated by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a fitting end to the India Foundation’s Counterterrorism Conference held in Jaipur on February 2-3, 2016.

: Gateway House; SYNDICATION; Think-Tanks; 18 February 2016

South Centre Pleads for Cooperation Between WIPO and UN Agencies

The South Centre pleaded for a new strategic framework for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with strategic goals aligned to those of the broader UN system in the following statement delivered to the 2015 World Intellectual Property Organization Assemblies held at its headquarters in Geneva on 5-14 October 2015.

: South Centre; SYNDICATION; Think-Tanks; 31 December 2015

Modi’s India Forging New and Improved Global Partnerships

Indian Prime Minister Modi with the Terracotta Warriors in the background, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor of China. | Credit: Gateway House

India’s foreign policy think tank ‘Gateway House’ based in Mumbai sifted through the speeches of Prime Minister Narenda Modi during his visits abroad in 2015 to assess the terms—such as cooperation and economy—he used most frequently. As the terminology pattern shows, India’s foreign policy is now focussed on forging new and improved global partnerships. And as the most-travelled head of state in the world, Modi’s words indicate India’s new global positioning.