Parliamentary petition to repeal 377A: not just any other petition

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2007/10/parliamentary-petition-to-repeal-377a-not-just-any-other-petition/

By Choo Zheng Xi

Published by The Online Citizen on October 12, 2007

In the most formal challenge to Singapore’s gay sex laws yet, Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Siew Kum Hong will be sponsoring a petition in Parliament calling for the repeal of section 377A of the Penal Code. The petition was initiated by lawyer George Hwang and gay media company Fridae.com owner Dr Stuart Koe.

377A is the section of the Penal Code which prohibits “gross indecency” between men.

The petition calls for the repeal of 377A on the basis that it contravenes section 12 (1) of the Constitution.

Section 12 (1) states: “All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law”.

The petition requests that Parliament ‘extend equal protection to all Singaporeans in respect of their private consensual sexual conduct, regardless of their sexual orientation’.

Section 377A Challenge Can Proceed: Court of Appeal

http://www.sayoni.com/lgbt-rights/2226-s377a-court-of-appeal

This article is by Indulekshmi Rajeswari, who was the head of M Ravi's legal team in the case.
Today was an absolutely historic day in the fight for LGBT rights in Singapore. The Court of Appeal decided to allow the constitutional challenge against s377A to go ahead, reversing the decision of the High Court.

At around 11am today, the Court of Appeal of Singapore released their decision regarding the hearing that took place almost a year ago, in 2011. I reported on the hearing back then, and it is useful reading for those who wish to know the background on this case.

In the 106-page judgment, the Court of Appeal explained their reasons. The reasons given are more or less consistent with the arguments of the Appellant, Tan Eng Hong. Primarily, the Court of Appeal opined the following:

Dear friends and colleagues,

Please find below a journal article by TWN’s New Delhi based researcher Ranja Sengupta, entitled ‘Government Procurement in the EU-India FTA: Dangers for India’, published recently by the influential Economic & Political Weekly.

Sengupta considers the challenges facing the government in New Delhi as it faces pressure from the European Union, via the proposed EU-India free trade agreement, to open up its lucrative government procurement (GP) sector (estimated at around US$156 billion, or around 12-14% of the nation’s gross domestic product), even while it studies the benefits and prospects for Indian companies to access public procurement in Europe.

The stakes are indeed high for India, Sengupta points out, as sectors as diverse as railways, energy and telecommunications to construction and health, hitherto reserved for domestic constituencies and used to address economic and social inequalities and to promote domestic growth and development, are slated to be up for grabs by EU (and India’s other trade partners') firms.

In addition to provisions such as prescribing minimum local content, price preference and other preferential measures, preferential treatment had also previously been given to Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and khadi and village enterprises (KVEs) such as the waiving of tender fees, awarding contracts to other than the lowest bidder, and 5-15% price preference for small-scale industries (SSIs). Reservations had also been given to MSMEs and KVEs, public sector undertakings, women’s groups, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other minority groups.

But while India is being asked to give market access to the EU, the latter’s own procurement, though technically open, is in effect inaccessible to most other countries, Sengupta finds. Only a very small proportion of the EU GP market can effectively be accessed by non-EU suppliers. According to one study, even if the EU markets were open to India, India’s likely gain would be around only US$10-12 million.

Recent developments in India have seen many MSMEs becoming ineligible for procurement bids, and a proposed public procurement bill is aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability, probity, fair and equitable treatment and to promote competition, efficiency, economy, integrity and public confidence in the public procurement process.

But aside from the conflict between the provisions of the future law and the likely provisions of the FTA in the pipeline between EU and India, the dangers are stark given the latter will lock in India’s  commitments on GP and severely compromise policy space.

Notwithstanding the current lack of transparency in the Indian system, corruption and “big gaps in the implementation of a development-friendly GP policy,” Sengupta concludes, these issues can be addressed domestically. After all, she says, India can always invite international bids when it needs, as it does currently, without shackling itself to binding agreements to do so.

With best wishes,

Third World Network

Gugatan Novartis untuk Paten GLIVEC (obat kanker) di Tolak Kantor Paten India

Gugatan Novartis pada kantor Paten India telah dilakukan beberapa tahun lampau. Saat ini kasusnya disidangkan di Mahkamah Agung India, keputusannya kemungkinan akan dilakukan pada bulan Juli 2012 mendatang. Tulisan di bawah ini dibuat pada awal gugatan ini berlangsung tahun 2007 dan pernah dimuat di website IGJ saat itu www.globaljust.org. Namun website itu berganti nama menjadiwww.igj.or.id. Karena tulisan ini masih relevan, maka dipublikasi kembali.

Gugatan perusahaan farmasi multinasional, Novartis ditolak oleh Pengadilan Tinggi Chennai pada 6 Agustus lalu 2007 lalu. Perusahaan farmasi itu mengajukan gugatan setelah pemerintah India menolak memberikan paten untuk Glivec, obat kanker, pada Januari 2006. Penolakan itu memberikan peluang untuk terus memproduksi secara bebas obat generik Imatinib untuk kanker.

Keputusan itu disambut para aktivis kesehatan yang yang telah mengingatkan, interpretasi yang terlalu luas atas kelayakan paten akan menghentikan India dari memproduksi obat-obatan murah untuk orang miskin. Direktur organisasi Dokter tanpa Batas atau Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),  Tido von Schön-Angerer, mengatakan penolakan itu merupakan penyelamatan jutaan pasien dan dokter di negara-negara berkembang yang tergantung obat buatan India.

Sementara Novartis mengumumkan akan memecah dana risetnya dan pengembangannya yang direncanakan ke India dipindah ke China. Daniel Vasella, pejabat tinggi perusahaan farmasi tersebut mengatakan, “keputusan ini bukan merupakan undangan untuk menginvestasikan dalam pengembangan dan penelitian di India, seperti yang telah kami lakukan. Kami akan menginvetasikan lebih ke negara dimana kami mendapat perlindungan. Ini juga bukan sejenis hukuman, ini hanya pertanyaan mengenai iklim investasi ke depan."

Pengadilan menekankan satu bagian dalam hukum paten India yang mensyaratkan penemuan yang layak untuk dipatenkan atau mendapat paten baru, harus benar-benar berubah signifikan. Klausa ini untuk mencegah terjadinya paten atas suatu penemuan yang hanya diubah sedikit. Dikatakan bahwa tidak ada yurisdiksi yang mengatur apakah klausa ini selaras dengan aturan WTO (Organisasi Perdagangan Dunia atau World Trade Organisation) yang berkaitan dengan perlindungan Hak atas Kekayaan Intelektual atau TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), seperti yang dituduhkan oleh Novartis.

Transgender people no longer considered "mentally ill" to American Psychiatric Association

By Kelly Craig

http://dot429.com

“Gender Identity Disorder” is now a term of the past as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, will be replacing the term with “Gender Dysphoria,” according to the Associated Press.

This change is a result of years of lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to change or remove the “mentally ill” characterization given to all who are transgender. Individuals may now be diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria, “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.”

“All psychiatric diagnoses occur within a cultural context,” Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist and member of the APA subcommittee said. “We know there is a whole community of people out there who are not seeking medical attention and live between the two binary categories. We wanted to send the message that the therapist’s job isn’t to pathologize.”

The DSM manual’s change in this fifth edition is a huge step for the trans community, as they will no longer live under the label “disordered.” 

Akses atas Obat dan FTA India - Uni Eropa

Keprihatinan serius disuarakan oleh para aktivis, kelompok masyarakat sipil dan para pasien atas perundingan pembentukkan perjanjian perdagangan bebas atau sering dikenal sebagai FTA antara Uni Eropa/UE (blok beranggotakan 27 negara) dengan India.

Demikian yang disampaikan oleh Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF atau Dokter tanpa Batas), sebuah organisasi internasional yang pernah meraih Nobel Perdamaian atas kerja-kerja di bidang kemanusiaan di sekitar 80 negara. Dalam surat yang dikirimkan ke Perdana Menteri India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, MSF menuliskan keprihatinannya atas perundingan FTA UE India yang bisa berdampak buruk pada akses atas obat-obatan tidak hanya di India tapi juga di negara-negara berkembang lainnya.

India menurut MSF, telah memainkan peranan penting dalam mensuplai obat-obatan versi generik ke seluruh negara-negara berkembang. MSF misalnya menggunakan 80 persen obat antiretroviral untuk program AIDS/HIV ke seluruh dunia dari India. Ketersediaan kombinasi dosis tetap tiga obat dalam satu tablet telah membawa perubahan luar biasa dalam pengobatan AIDS. Dan itu hanya mungkin terjadi karena tidak ada hak paten diberlakukan untuk membuat tiga obat dalam satu tablet di India. Saat ini, menurut data MSF, 92 persen orang yang hidup dengan HIV/AIDS di negera-negara berkembang dan miskin menggunakan obat antiretroviral yang dibuat di India.