An Open Letter by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food highlighting concern over the Regional Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Plant Varieties by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
The letter highlights concern that the Arusha Protocol is inappropriate for the ARIPO region and the non-transparent and non-inclusive process by which the Arusha Protocol was adopted as well as that civil society and farmer representatives may be excluded from the upcoming Administrative Council meeting of the ARIPO that will be adopting the Draft Regulations for implementing the Protocol.
The letter urges ARIPO governments to refrain from endorsing and/or ratifying the Arusha Protocol and adopting the Draft regulations for its implementation and to begin a new process that is transparent, evidence based and inclusive of civil society and smallholder farmer representatives to overhaul the Protocol and the draft Regulations and to develop a new legal framework that is appropriate for the agricultural system that prevails in the ARIPO region, and which reflects the needs and interests especially of farmer managed seeds systems in the ARIPO region.