Sexual Slavery's Biggest Challenge-Civil Society Silence

                                                                   Image from Prajwala
Can you break your culture of silence? Can you offer compassion to survivors of sexual slavery? Will you hire them, let your children study with them, treat them as equal human beings?


TED reports "Each year, some two million women and children, many younger than 10 years old, are bought and sold around the globe. Impassioned by the silence surrounding the sex-trafficking epidemic, Sunitha Krishnan co-founded Prajwala, or "eternal flame," a group in Hyderabad that rescues women from brothels and educates their children to prevent second-generation prostitution. Prajwala runs 17 schools throughout Hyderabad for 5,000 children and has rescued more than 2,500 women from prostitution, 1,500 of whom Krishnan personally liberated.

Krishnan has sparked India's anti-trafficking movement by coordinating government, corporations, and NGOs. She forged NGO-corporate partnerships with companies like Amul India, Taj Group of Hotels and Heritage Hospitals to find jobs for rehabilitated women. In collaboration with UN agencies and other NGOs, she established printing and furniture shops that have rehabilitated some 300 survivors. Krishnan works closely with the government to define anti-trafficking policy, and her recommendations for rehabilitating sex victims have been passed into state legislation."


In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young survivors rebuild their lives. See her harrowing TED India talk below.

The Promise of Patent Pools for Access to Medicines-Cute Educational Animation

Often prices set by pharmaceutical companies are out of reach for developing countries. With a growing need for second-line treatment for millions of people living with HIV, how can access to currently expensive drugs be assured?

  

On 29 October, the UNAIDS Liaison Office to the European Union organized a roundtable to discuss UNITAID’s initiative to create a voluntary Patent Pool for AIDS medicines. The meeting brought together representatives of the European Commission, Médecins Sans Frontières, European AIDS Treatment Group and representatives from the pharmaceutical industry. UNITAID, an international drug purchase facility, has taken the first steps to create a voluntary patent pool for AIDS medicines for developing countries for the public good.

*Intellectual Property Rights *

A patent is a form of ownership, intellectual property, which covers creations of the mind including inventions and pharmaceuticals. It acts as an incentive for companies to invest in research and development, knowing that with a monopoly in the market place, they stand a good chance of recouping their investment and making a profit.

Patents are regulated through the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPS) together with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public health and other World Trade Organization key decisions.

HIV-related patents remain a controversial topic between AIDS activists and the major pharmaceutical companies; while drug prices have dropped dramatically, newer products – such as second line treatment - are still very expensive.

*Patent Pools – the solution? *

UNITAD argues that a patent pool could be one of the solutions to expand access to more appropriate and lower priced medicines in low- and middle-income countries. A patent pool is when patent rights held by different owners such as universities, pharmaceutical companies or government institutions, are brought together and made available on a non-exclusive basis.