Promoting an Inclusive Approach to Benefit Sharing: Expanding the Scope of the CBD? - Benefit Sharing - page 156

meanings and functions within the convention. Nowhere is this tension more
apparent than in the definitions of 'biodiversity' and 'access', and the inclusion/
exclusion criteria, which provide a good insight into the issue of human genetic
resources within the scope of the CBD.

7.2.2 ABS Issues in International Negotiating Forums

ABS has emerged as an important policy option for addressing concerns regarding
biopiracy and related issues. As is clear from Table 7.1 , it was and is being dis-
cussed by a large variety of organizations.
While some individual nations have come to a decision regarding formulating
a policy on the issue of ABS, no international agencies have done so. This includes
WIPO, UNEP, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the
World Medical Association and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This does not imply a lack of interest in the sub-
ject, as the many ongoing debates in various international forums attest, but rather an
inability to achieve consensus on basic facts related to ABS issues and how these relate
to international treaties. The differences in opinion between developed and developing
countries are again evident, and are the main reason behind the continuing deadlock.
The situation is nowhere more apparent than at the negotiations of the TRIPS
Agreement of the WTO. The TRIPS negotiations have become the main inter-
national stage for contentious debates on ABS, not least because WTO treaties
include strong enforcement rules that make them akin to international law. In the

Table 7.1 ABS Discussions in Global Processes
Food and Agriculture Organization Commission on Genetic Resources (ongoing)

Food and Agriculture Organization International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources

for Food and Agriculture (Rome, 2001)

World Trade Organization TRIPs (ongoing)

Convention on Biological Diversity Nagoya Protocol (2010)

Antarctic Treaty System Bioprospecting in Antarctica (1999)

World Intellectual Property Organization Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual

Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional
Knowledge and Folklore (2001)

General Assembly of United Nations United Nations Informal Consultative Process

on Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea
(UNICPOLOS) (2001) and Ad Hoc Working
Group on Biodiversity Beyond the Limits of
Any National Jurisdiction (2004)

World Summit on Sustainable Development International Regime on ABS (2002)

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(2007)

Source : Glowka ( 2008 )