Commission on Science and Technology for Development
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UFRGS Model United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development Dear Delegates, Feel very welcome to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, best known as SciTech. Our committee is one of the innovations brought by the third edition of UFRGS Model United Nations as an attempt to deepen discussions on international cooperation for development. SciTech Staff has been working hard in order to provide you with realistic and qualified information that minors the most challenging topics recently discussed in the UN regarding S&T. Our proposed debate for this year’s conference concerns the conflict between the construction of a favorable policy environment for the application of S&T and the global harmonization of Intellectual Property Rights (Topic A), as well as the necessity of narrowing the digital divide on Information and Communication Technologies, as to ensure a favorable scenario towards development (Topic B). Also, we would like to thank Lisa Jamhoury for her English revision to these Guides. SciTech is a pluralistic committee, demonstrated even by its staff, which is composed of five determined students with a common passion for international affairs. The Directors, Anne, Carolina and Lucas were all participants in last year’s UFRGSMUN edition as staff members. Anne and Carolina, both currently in their third year of UFRGS Law School, were assistants in the Security Council and in the SPECPOL Committee, after participating in the 7th Americas Model United Nations (AMUN), held in Brasília in 2004. This year, Carolina integrated the UFRGS team for the 12th Willem C. Vis International Arbitration Moot, an international law competition held in Vienna, Austria. Lucas, a senior architecture student, was a delegate at UFRGSMUN 2003 and a member of UFRGSMUN 2004’s ID Team, having a great deal of responsibility for its success. The committee’s Assistants, Christian and Daniel, are students of the second and third year of 1 UFRGS Law School. Christian has recently participated in TEMAS and Daniel participated as a delegate in last year’s UFRGSMUN in the SPECPOL Committee. We are immensely thrilled to meet all of you in November and hope that you will enjoy this unique experience by defending your country’s position on S&T matters, interacting with other delegates and making new, lasting friendships. Most of all, we believe in your contribution to the SciTech’s discussions, in order to reach the best solution to the problems proposed. It must be remembered that these Study Guides are only the starting point of your research and that you have to present your position papers. We also urge you to sign up for UFRGSMUN SciTech’s e-group ([email protected]), so you can be connected with both the staff and your fellow delegates. Also, be reminded to check UFRGSMUN website periodically for latest updates of SciTech. Have a wonderful time in Porto Alegre, and feel free to contact us whenever you wish! Yours sincerely, SciTech Staff Anne Caroline Diesel de Oliveira Carolina Paranhos Coelho [email protected] [email protected] Director Director Lucas Welter [email protected] Director Daniel Paulo Caye Christian Perrone de Oliveira Assistant-Director Assistant-Director 2 INTRODUCTION SciTech’s General Background The Commission on Science and Technology for Development (SciTech) is one of the nine functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). SciTech’s main role is to provide the General Assembly and the ECOSOC with policy recommendations through a broad and appropriate analysis on relevant international issues. SciTech was established in 1992 as a result of the reformulation of the United Nations: the former Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development (IGCSTD) and its subsidiary body, the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development (ACSTD), were disbanded by the General Assembly and replaced by SciTech. Since July 1993, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretariat has been responsible for the Commission, which consists of 33 Member States, elected by ECOSOC for a term of four years. The annual meetings are held for a period of one week. Experts nominated by their respective governments should possess the necessary qualifications and professional or scientific knowledge to take part in the SciTech’s boards of discussion. In this context, the Commission acts as a legitimate forum for examining science and technology questions, particularly regarding their implications for countries’ development. The formulation of recommendations and guidelines on matters of science and technology provides a fundamental technical background for the development of common policies and appropriate actions within the United Nations system. Although SciTech’s recommendations are not binding, the Commission creates the necessary conditions for pluralistic debates, in which countries are able to discuss important issues on equal grounds. In taking part in the SciTech, delegates will have the challenging task of reaching an agreement in which the roles of both public and private sectors, as well as actors of civil society, have to be equally weighed. 3 TOPIC AREA A Improving the Policy Environment for the Application of Science and Technology: Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries. By Carolina Paranhos Coelho and Daniel Paulo Caye. “Science maybe the engine of social, economic, military, industrial and intellectual change but the scientist is not in the driving seat”1 1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. General Background: The Millennium Development Goals. The international community is finally gathered to provide a better world for the projected 7 billion people in 2015. In September 2000, a unanimous declaration recognizing collective responsibility to uphold the human dignity, equality and equity at the global level was made by United Nations (UN) member States. The compiled targets for sustainable development became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and were accepted as part of the road map for implementing the Millennium Declaration, setting the ambitious goal of halving the world’s poverty by the year 2015. As an attempt to ensure accountability, precise objectives were set by the MDGs, which have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. The first seven goals are mutually reinforcing and are directed towards the reduction of 1 UNCTAD. MANAN, Tuan Haji Aziz bin Abdul and CHEN, S.S. Improving the Policy Environment for the Application of Science and Technology to Development. Available at: http://stdev.unctad.org/unsystem/cstd/manan.doc. Last Accessed: 23/05/04. 4 poverty in all its forms. The last goal - global partnership for development - regards the means to achieve the first seven.2 In essence, goal number eight calls for generous aid from the international community to countries committed to poverty reduction and relief for the debt problems of developing countries. Indeed, global partners may play a major role in ensuring poor peoples’ inclusion in the benefits produced by development. However, countries also need to set their own strategies in order to achieve success on this front, since a favorable national policy environment becomes a vital tool for science and technology diffusion. 1.2. The Patent Treaties The emergence of global intellectual property protection regime based on agreements such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has been subject to considerable debate concerning its impact on international technology generation and transfers, trade performance and development. A patent is a legal certificate that gives an inventor the exclusive right to prevent others from producing, using, selling, or importing an invention for a fixed period3. Actions can be legally taken against patent infringements that copy or sell inventions without permission from the patent owner. Unlike traditional forms of tangible property, IP is difficult to control and protect, being neither physical nor tangible. Moreover, because IP represents technological achievement, it has become a contentious issue between developed countries- which own most of the IP, and try to protect it through international treaties -, and least developed countries that need access to this knowledge. In this sense, the first patent treaty, that provided grounds for all subsequent patent treaties, was the 1884 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Still in force, the Paris Convention, which today has 186 signatory countries,4 was the pioneer attempt to set common patent rules among member States. Ranking in importance with the Paris Convention are two other treaties.5 First, the World Intellectual Property Organization or "WIPO", established in 1967, which, in 1970, became a United Nations 2 The World Bank Group Website. Millennium Development Goals. Available at: http://ddp- ext.worldbank.org/ext/MDG/homePages.do. Last accessed: 25 Mai 2005. 3 IPRsonline.org. Guide to Intellectual Property Rights. Available at: http://www.iprsonline.org/guide/index.htm. Last accessed: 23 Mai 2005. 4 ILARDI, Alfredo. Origin and Development of the International Protection of Intellectual Property. Seminar at Oxford’s St. Peter’s College. Available at: http://www.oiprc.ox.ac.uk/EJWP0205.pdf. Last accessed: 13 Mai 2005. 5 MOSSINGHOFF, Honorable Gerald J. Patent Harmonization through