Other news

elhi/Mumbai, 13 March 2012 – Indian health groups are rejoicing at the announcement of the first compulsory licence (CL) issued by the Controller of Patents on 12 March 2012. The CL has been granted in response to an application filed by generic manufacturer Natco Pharma nine months ago requesting authorization to make and sell generic versions of the cancer medicine, sorefanib tosylate. CL provisions are among the major health safeguards in India’s patent law.

The first CL comes at a time when more and more medicines are being patented in India. The real impact of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) mandated patent system is starting to be felt now in India.

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The Double Jeopardy Partnership launched a consultation about the international protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) refugees and asylum seekers. The consultation seeks to gain views from individuals and organisations, on a draft declaration of human rights, which will represent a call to action for governments across the world

The Double Jeopardy Partnership is a coalition of UK and international organisations committed to promoting and protecting the welfare of this very vulnerable and persecuted group.  The partnership includes UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group, MBARC, Metro, the University of Greenwich and International Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The Partnership was established in 2010 following a conference focussed on the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing persecution as result of their sexual orientation or gender identity. To participate in the consultation and find out more about the Double Jeopardy 2012 Conference please go to http://www.lgbtiasr-doublejeopardy.org/CONFERENCE_2012/HOMEPAGE.html

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A small group of activists picketed outside the Johannesburg offices of the Qatari news network, Al Jazeera, this week to demand the reinstatement of a South African journalist who was dismissed solely because of his HIV-positive status.

About 100 activists chanted and sang outside the offices of Al Jazeera, in Johannesburg. They were a small group, but they represented powerful civil society organisations - two of the country's powerful trade unions, COSATU and FEDUSA, campaign group Treatment Action Campaign and social rights movement, Section 27. Their message was also very clear, as articulated through a loud-hailer by the Treatment Action Campaign's Nokhwezi Hoboyi in a memorandum delivered to Al Jazeera's Johannesburg offices.

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(Moscow, February 8, 2012) – The Russian government’s anti-drugs agency has ordered the blocking of the website of a public health organization, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation, for discussing the addiction medicine methadone, human rights groups said today. The move is an assault on freedom of expression in the midst of pro-democracy protests, the groups said.

The order from the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Moscow Department went into effect on February 3, 2012. The order claims the move is due to the “placement of materials that propagandize (advertise) the use of drugs, information about distribution, purchasing of drugs and inciting the use of drugs.”

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The Global Network of Sex Work Projects condemns the current situation of sex worker activists in Kenya and the harassment being experienced by human rights defenders in Nairobi.

On Thursday, February 2nd– progressive civil society organisations in Nairobi marched to voice their concern around the harassment and violation of the rights of marginalised persons such as street families, hawkers, LGBTI communities and sex workers, by the Nairobi City Council.

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