News archive: Protimos news

CGI Commitments to Action

Judicial Advisory Group (JAG)

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative 2009, Protimos has committed to launching a small, regional Judicial Advisory Group (JAG) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This commitment supports the growing body of work being done by Protimos lawyers, providing access to law for indigenous or marginalised communities, who are the most vulnerable to exploitation and corruption. 

The JAG will be composed of leading judges and former judges, both from Sub-Saharan Africa, and other parts of the Commonwealth jurisdiction. Its purpose is to provide practical, integral support and training for the judiciary across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The JAG will encourage more informed access to judicial procedure. It will increase the capacity of local courts to handle issues of emerging complexity, such as the rights of indigenous peoples as set out in the UN Declaration.

The JAG will address lack of transparency in the judicial process, where it occurs, and provide training where there is a lack of experience amongst members of the judiciary in hearing the claims and concerns of the indigenous and marginalised.

Jag Partners

Jeremy Pope

Judge Brendan Cullinan

International Commission of Jurists: Africa Programme

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)

International Lawyers Project (ILP)

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Green Light Programme

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative 2009, Protimos, working with our partners, commits to the creation of the Green Light Programme. This commitment will support the development and implementation of an international legal Protocol, through which the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of a community will be negotiated in an equitable and mutually beneficial manner, before any use of the communities’ natural resources may occur.

Commitment Background

Intellectual property rights in community biodiversity, such as traditional knowledge, plant varieties, and farmers’ rights are regularly disregarded, with natural resources being removed, and/or commercially exploited without the free, prior, and informed consent of the community, or indeed any consent at all.

The effect of these actions may be to deprive a community of access to a highly significant means of poverty alleviation. In recent times, with the growth of reporting as a corporate behavioural discipline, the international corporate community has begun to recognise that such behaviours have negative reflexive impacts, such as materiality, reputational risk, and corporate uncertainty.

Current international law explicitly advocates FPIC. Incorporating legal and equitable provisions into the Protocol will offer beneficial opportunities to the corporation and community alike. Monitoring provisions, envisaged as an essential feature of the Protocol, will address its long-term sustainability.

We will pilot this commitment within selected indigenous communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Green Light Programme Partners

Fauna and Flora International

Amnesty International

Kew Gardens (Biodiversity Unit)

Phytotrade Africa

UCLAN Centre for Professional Ethics

Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent

Centre for International Governance, School of Law, University of Leeds,

Irish Centre for Human Rights

Light Years IP

South African San Institute (SASI)