Combatting overcompliance with unilateral coercive measures – Discussions from South Centre Consultation
By Yuefen Li and Danish
In view of the severe negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) on targeted countries and the international community, and at the request of South Centre Member States, the South Centre organized a meeting on 18 November 2024 with the participation of senior diplomats from a number of developing countries, several of whom have been targeted by UCMs. The meeting focused on the trends and main drivers of overcompliance with UCMs among multinational firms and financial institutions, and the strategies that can be employed to mitigate overcompliance, especially in relation to humanitarian exemptions.
International Regulation of Industrial Designs: The TRIPS Agreement in the Light of European Union Law
By Adèle Sicot
This paper analyzes the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) on industrial designs, and the manner in which the narrow aspects dealt with by the Agreement have been addressed by European Union (EU) legislation. The paper highlights the absence of a definition of protectable subject matter, and the considerable flexibility left to the member countries of the World Trade Organization to determine the framework of protection, notably on the basis of copyright. The paper also notes certain areas in which European legislation is more elaborate, and others which could be considered incompatible with the TRIPS Agreement.
South Centre inputs to the Secretary-General’s synthesis report on opportunities, best practices, actionable solutions, challenges and barriers relevant to a just transition and the full realisation of human rights for all people
December 2024
A just transition requires urgent action! The South Centre calls for increased climate finance, reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and upholding Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDRRC) to ensure a sustainable and equitable future for all.
Towards a UN Protocol for Taxing Cross-Border Services in a Digitalized Economy
By Abdul Muheet Chowdhary, Anne Wanyagathi Maina and Kolawole Omole
This Policy Brief offers a way forward on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation’s (UNFCITC) protocol for taxing cross-border services in a digitalized economy. Such a protocol can provide a way to standardize and harmonize the existing plethora of widely varying Digital Services Taxes (DSTs), which can reduce political tension between the Global North and South, ease compliance costs and uncertainties for business, while providing a basis for the elimination of double taxation. The revenue generated can help bridge the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing gap and for the realization of human rights in the Global South. The Group of Twenty (G20) can act as a forum where key countries in the North and South can hammer out the architecture of the protocol for taxing cross-border services.
Las nuevas pandemias son inevitables. ¿Cómo podemos estar mejor preparados para ellas y, sobre todo, cómo podemos evitar los errores e injusticias cometidos durante la pandemia de COVID19? Actualmente se están llevando a cabo negociaciones para formular un tratado internacional vinculante sobre prevención y preparación que garantice respuestas más justas a futuras pandemias. Este libro pretende ser una contribución crítica a estos debates en curso.
¿Cómo garantizar un acceso equitativo a los medicamentos y diagnósticos cuando la mayoría de ellos se producen en un número reducido de países? ¿Cómo explicar que la financiación actual de la cooperación sanitaria esté en manos de un pequeño grupo de países y fundaciones del Norte? ¿Cómo reforzar el papel de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, que actualmente desempeña un papel secundario en la coordinación de las políticas de salud pública? ¿Por qué se ha sustituido el concepto de «medicamentos esenciales», gran avance de la política de salud pública, por el de «contramedidas médicas», término más acorde con el afán de lucro del sector privado?
Autor: Germán Velásquez, Asesor especial sobre políticas y salud, South Centre de Ginebra
What Is Driving the BRICS’ Debate on De-Dollarisation?
By Ding Yifan
Ahead of the 2023 BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, there was much discussion amongst the member countries about whether negotiations would take place at the meeting regarding the development of a BRICS currency and the acceleration of de-dollarisation, that is, the promotion of currency cooperation and reduction in the use of the US dollar. In the end, the country leaders did not specifically discuss the issue of a BRICS currency but passed a resolution on expanding the organisation’s membership. Nonetheless, from both historical and realist perspectives, it is in the interest of the BRICS countries to promote de-dollarisation.
Navigating the WTO’s Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology: A Critical Analysis from the Perspective of Developing Countries
By Nirmalya Syam
This paper critically analyzes the operations and effectiveness of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology (WGTTT). Despite the establishment of the WGTTT in 2001 with a mandate to enhance technology flows to developing countries, the Group has struggled to produce meaningful outcomes due to divergent priorities between developed and developing countries. This paper finds that the WGTTT remains an exploratory discussion forum rather than a negotiation platform with the capacity to generate new initiatives that address the technology transfer needs of developing countries. Key reforms are proposed, including transitioning to a negotiation-oriented approach, improving the balance of member priorities, and focusing on actionable themes to enhance the WGTTT effectiveness in fostering technology transfer to developing countries.
Investor Obligations in International Investment Law
by David Cheng, Jai Abhijit Unde, and James Casey Ryan
Prepared for the South Centre as part of the Geneva Graduate Institute’s LL.M. Legal Clinic Programme
This report first outlines key instruments and different approaches that some States across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have taken to reform the international investment regime in relation to investor obligations. Second, it charts the trends arising from investment tribunals following Urbaser across environmental and human rights cases. Third, it describes and evaluates the reform efforts at the multilateral level. Finally, it summarises and evaluates avenues for policy reform by States.
South Centre Inputs to FfD4 Elements Paper – Debt Sustainability, Business and Finance, Taxation
By Yuefen Li, Danish, Abdul Muheet Chowdhary
The upcoming 4th conference on financing for development (FfD4) represents an important opportunity for developing countries to achieve a deep reform of the international financial architecture so that it meets their sustainable development needs and enhances the scale of development finance to fully realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on the inputs provided by the South Centre to the FfD4 process, this policy brief highlights some of the key messages, problem statements and policy solutions in the areas of sovereign debt, private business and finance, and international tax cooperation that should be considered by the countries of the global South in their deliberations towards achieving ambitious outcomes at FfD4.
African researchers continue to face information-access barriers owing to copyright exclusivity preserved by the global copyright system that is designed and skewed towards protecting rights holders’ interests. A specific explicit human right to research is an important mechanism that can ensure an equitable balance between the private commercial interest of copyright owners and the public interest in promoting access to information for research in Africa. This article demonstrates how the right to research can be constructed from the normative content and scope of the rights to science and culture, education, property and freedom of expression provided for in international, regional and national human rights regimes in Africa.
Undue High Expectations of the G20 Common Framework: Urgent Need to Reform the International Debt Architecture
By Yuefen Li
This article stresses how international debt architecture reform requires innovative solutions beyond the G20 Common Framework, and should be addressed at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development.
60 years of Contribution of the Group of 77 and China to Global South Coalition in International Development and Politics
By Yuefen Li and Danish
The New York Chapter of the Group of 77 and China (G77 and China) commemorated its 60th Anniversary on 25 October 2024 in New York. This document is based on the presentation made by Prof. Yuefen Li, Senior Advisor on South-South Cooperation and Development Finance at the South Centre, as part of the panel discussion held at the commemoration on the theme of “60 years of Contribution of the Group of 77 and China to Global South Coalition in International Development and Politics”.
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