ABSTRACT

Non-governmental actors such as indigenous peoples’ organizations, other grassroots organizations, advocacy groups, and even some academic and scientific institutions, are responding to and seeking to influence international agreements like the CBD, TRIPS and the IUPGR. Their various approaches include: (i) actively opposing trends in intellectual property and international trade law, especially the patenting of life-forms; (ii) advocating equitable benefit sharing from biotechnological research through use of model laws, local/traditional knowledge databases, contracts, or ethical guidelines and codes of practice, and intellectual property rights; and (iii) using emerging international environmental and human rights law as part of a campaign aimed at empowering traditional communities (Sutherland 1997).