Kindred Quaker Groups
Canadian Friends Service Committee's
Quaker International Affairs Programme (QIAP)
Who is QIAP?
THE QUAKER INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS PROGRAMME is a programme of Canadian Quakers under Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC).
A Quaker seminar in October 1998 brought together Friends from across Canada, and internationally, to explore Quaker International Affairs, including possible new roles for Canadian Friends. A working group was established following the seminar to seek ways to carry forward the ideas of the seminar.
Our vision was a new programme that would serve to build bridges, facilitate dialogue on contentious international issues and build on the strength of being both Canadian and Quaker.
In 2001 the program began its first project in collaboration with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)-Geneva on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).
What is TRIPS?
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS that are being granted to the rich and powerful through trade agreements at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multilateral agencies bring concerns about justice, the well-being of the planet and conflict prevention. These agreements have long-term effects.
What we do
QIAP facilitates people-to-people diplomacy by:
Organizing meetings and seminars aimed at building trust, sharing information, and promoting dialogue.
Attending relevant multilateral meetings to promote fair process both inside and outside the meetings.
Preparing information materials for stakeholders and the public on major issues of concern.
Collaborating with the worldwide network of Quaker agencies.
We work with:
Government officials and diplomats in Canada and internationally.
Intergovernmental officials such as the United Nations and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Non-Governmental and faith-based organizations.
Marginalized groups directly affected by an issue or conflict (e.g., indigenous peoples).
Academics and experts.
Current work
OUR FIRST MANDATE in collaboration with the Quaker UN office in Geneva is to achieve greater equity in the negotiating process regarding the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Our work includes other for a such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and regional and bilateral agreements that are the trend to achieve goals that are not attainable at the WTO table.
Programme Highlights 2002-2005
QIAP HAS HELD WORKSHOPS and dialogues in Ottawa, Miami (USA), Cancun (Mexico) and in Geneva (with QUNO-Geneva) on a range of trade and intellectual property rights issues.
QIAP and QUNO-Geneva assisted developing country TRIPS negotiators at the WTO ministerial meetings in September 2003 by making legal/technical experts available for consultation.
QIAP and QUNO jointly published three issue papers that are highly technical and geared towards policymakers and negotiators on issues across a range of government ministries, as well as those groups and agencies with special interests.
Our fourth Issue Paper, “Bilateral Agreements and a TRIPS-plus world: the Chile-USA Free Trade Agreement,” by Pedro Roffe, was published in the fall of 2004. It contributes to a better understanding of patent issues in a bilateral free trade agreement and lessons that could be drawn from negotiations between the most powerful country in the world and a small dynamic developing country. This spring we hosted more seminars and a off-the-record dialogue with the author for Canadian government representatives.
In November 2004 we were able to collaborate with the North South Institute (NSI), Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the British Department for International Development (DFID) to bring a panel of four experts together in Ottawa for two days of meetings. They included an American academic and an Argentine academic who were part of a team commissioned by the British government to study the effects of patents on development, an academic from the College of Law at the University of the Philippines who spoke of the experience of patents on her country, and the Comptroller General and Chief Executive of the UK Patent Office.
The two days of sessions provided opportunities for representatives from a significant spectrum of Canadian government departments and for some of the non-governmental organizations to learn from the findings of these experienced visitors. Friends from the Quaker United Nations Office-Geneva also participated. An off-the-record dialogue for some key government people with the international guests, provided an opportunity to discuss the findings and recommendations of the British Commission and Canada’s role. QIAP plays a catalytic role in addressing inequity and injustice created by international patent policy and policy-making processes by linking Canadian government policymakers to international representatives, including those from developing countries.
In order to raise awareness about the importance of this work, QIAP and QUNO have also jointly published a briefing paper for Friends titled, “Patents and Quaker Action,” explaining why we are working on intellectual property issues and our unique methodology. We have also published a series of three briefing papers for the wider public on “Patents and Health,” “Patents and Food,” and “Patents and Development.”
Work Plan 2005-2006
WE WILL CONTINUE to work on IP issues, and our scope will evolve in order to deal with the forum-shifting of governments.
We plan to focus more of our work on genetics and associated issues, such as access and benefit-sharing and associated traditional knowledge these discussions are happening at the WTO, WIPO, CBD, and the FAO and have huge implications for food security and the ability to access knowledge, technology, and resources for all but the wealthiest populations of the world.
QEW-QIAP and our shared concerns
Friends’ long-standing testimonies for simplicity, peace, equality, and justice
Health and well-being of the planet and those who share it.
Food security, sustainable agriculture, and the privatisation of agricultural biodiversity. Concern that patenting of seeds and plants takes away the rights of farmers to save seed for next year’s crops and to nurture and grow appropriate crops for their community through practices that are healthy for the land and the population that depends on it.
Aboriginal rights/traditional knowledge. Friends have worked in various ways to address injustices in the relationship between aboriginal and settler societies. The concern for bio-piracy is one of the issue as large corporations are granted rights to patents and control of a broad spectrum of cultural elements.
Justice and Earthcare. QIAP seeks to bring justice to the process where important decisions are made about the future of genetic resources, seeds, plants, and microorganisms and who has access to them, we hope to develop awareness among the stakeholders in the various aspects of these issues.
Request to QEW
CFSC has made it possible for Canadian Friends to donate to QEW and their work, including the Finca la Bella project in Costa Rica.
We are asking QEW to reciprocate by adopting QIAP as a project so that those American Friends who would like to donate to QIAP may do so through QEW and receive a charitable tax receipt. We understand that a new agency agreement will have to be developed between CFSC and QEW.
Minute from QIAP February 2005.
U.S. Donations. Tracy, Orion, and Carol will look into how we can arrange for a US Quaker Organization to accept donations on our behalf and grant an American tax receipt.
—Carol Dixon, clerk
Quaker International Affairs Programme Committee.
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