Prof Abbe Brown (Law) and Prof Marcel Jaspars (Chemistry) have been contributing to international policy-making in three UN institutions to bring about a fair, science-informed and legally consistent approach to policy-making. Their collaboration focused on the use which is made of genetic resources to gain new knowledge and build new products.
Approaches to genetics resources, particularly regarding access and benefit sharing are receiving increasing attention. This reflects the important steps being taken by scientists in developing new nature based products (such as medicines, cosmetics and crops). These build on physical genetic resources; new technology which enables developments to be made using digital information about the genetic resources in a more sustainable manner; and progress towards an approach to “access and benefit sharing” in obtaining and using these resources which is both scientifically workable and fairer to communities linked with the resources, and to society more widely. Benefit sharing can include the sharing of the financial and other benefits arising - the new knowledges and products developed from the resources (be that through of share of royalties from a patent, training opportunities for scientists in different parts of the world or a new database) or the building of, say, a school.
From scientific, community and societal perspectives the same issues arise irrespective of the source of the genetic resources or the use being made of it: how to reward and encourage innovation while respecting the communities and their established approaches to knowledge and knowledge production. Yet from a legal and policy perspective, access and benefit sharing arise in different international fora: in some of these this seems self explanatory, some less so. At the UN, these are the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992 in relation to activity in national jurisdictions and its Nagoya Protocol 2010 the Agreement on Conservation and Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) (text agreed 2023, now awaiting the required number of ratifications to come into force, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture 2001 (Plant Treaty) and ongoing discussions at the World Health Organization regarding a new Pandemic Accord which includes consideration of access and benefit sharing in relation to pathogens. Also part of this landscape are the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore progress towards an Diplomatic conference on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (which includes consideration of disclosure of origin often argued to be a fundamental issue regarding access and benefit sharing); the long running questions at the World Trade Organization regarding the links between its IP agreement (TRIPS 1994) and the relationship between TRIPS and the CBD regarding biodiversity and UNESCO leadership regarding Open Science 2021.
There is no hierarchy between these treaties. In November 2022, the CBD Conference of the Parties established the Global Biodiversity Framework. This includes in its overarching umbrella frameworks “Fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources, digital sequence information and associated traditional knowledge and by 2030, facilitating a significant increase of the benefits shared, in accordance with applicable international access and benefit-sharing instruments”.
Contributing to bringing this target about, and more generally delivering an integrated solution to these diversity of regimes which works from science, law and policy perspectives, including contributing to what is actually to be the appropriate term in treaties regarding digital sequence information is a key theme of the research of Brown and Jaspars. They work through AUCEL and Aberdeen Research Centre for Commercial Law and the Marine Biodiscovery Centre. Their work is aligned with the commitment of the University to sustainability through its Aberdeen 2040 strategy and the Environment and Biodiversity interdisciplinary challenge. They are involved in the MARBLES and BLUEREMEDIOMICs projects, are members of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (including their contributions to the Global Song of the Ocean) and through their membership of theInternational Union for the Conservation of Nature, provided support towards the new Agreement on Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (text agreed in 2023).
Reflecting this, on 15 November 2023 Abbe Brown attended the first Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Benefit-sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources meeting as an Academic and Research delegate of the University. She participated in the DSI Scientific Network event “Creating a harmonized system for benefit sharing from DSI” and engaged further with colleagues regarding the importance of a holistic, workable intersection between legal fields with a focus on science and on equity. The CBD meeting closed with areas for convergence and further work identified including regarding learning from existing approaches and collaboration with other fora, and the possibility of an inter-forum body.
On 22 November 2023 Abbe attended the 10th session of the Governing Body meeting of the Plant Treaty in Rome, where DSI was one of the hotpoints being explored. She spoke at a DSI Scientific Network side event. After scientific colleagues stressing the need for a harmonized approach, she explored the detailed engagement with the need for coherence, notably in relation to DSI, across several international legal regimes (WHO, BBNJ, Plant Treaty, CBD); she also noted instances of some states taking a more segregated approach, arguing that, for example, intellectual property should be considered at the WTO, not the WHO. Abbe then contributed to debates about how one can move beyond positive rhetoric, goodwill and commitment to actually deliver a more harmonised approach, in a landscape of different, and highly respective international treaty bodies and communities. This is particularly an issue for the Plant Treaty which has a well established multilateral benefit sharing approach regarding resources within its remit.
Looking forward, at the Plant Treaty four working groups will take place between 2023-5 with a key hotspot being approaches to DSI; there will be a CBD meeting on August 2024; and meetings at WIPO and the WHO in March 2024 . Abbe and Marcel will continue to engage with IGO and NGO partners contribute to the development of science based solutions which engage effectively, holistically and productively with all relevant legal fields, including regarding intellectual property and information laws. Towards this, Marcel and Abbe attended, along with other members of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative, a science-policy interface session of the UNESCO’s World Ocean Assessment in December 2023. They are seeking to inform new inclusive, legally interdisciplinary approaches to ocean literacy technology transfer and partnership.