Guyana’s Geneva mission working with WHO on cancer programme – Greenidge

Guyana’s embassy in Geneva has started discussions with the World Health Organization (WHO) on putting in place a public health programme to tackle cancer, one of the biggest killer diseases in Guyana and the Caribbean, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge says.

“The incidences of cancer in Guyana is a major problem,” Greenidge told the media on Thursday at a press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Referring to the prevalence of cervical cancer among Guyana’s indigenous women, and certain types of cancers among the African community, he said that the WHO “has been primed by the Ministry of Health to see whether they can work with us on a public health programme.”

A WHO team was in Guyana between 3rd and 7th December looking at a baseline study with recommendations for effective cancer control, the Minister disclosed. The objective of the public health programme is to monitor the incidences and to do something about those who are already affected by cancer, he said.

The Geneva-based mission, established earlier this year and headed by Ambassador Dr JR Deep Ford, is important because Geneva is the home of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which tackle, among other things, trade-related matters, human resources issues, labour laws, labour rights and human rights, Greenidge said.

In expanding further on the work the mission has done this year, he said that it collaborated with the United Nations Environment Programme on Guyana’s green economy modelling study which is intended to be a synthesis report to help evaluate budgeting and planning decisions taken by the Ministry of Finance.

“This is an international agency lending its technical capacity to ensure that the financial and fiscal planning, tax and related measures are consistent with those needed by a green economy,” he said. That report is due before the end of the year and the Ministry of Finance is to give feedback on it within a matter of weeks.

Through the Geneva mission, Greenidge further said, the Ministries of Health and Finance have approached the Swiss government and the Swiss food and drinks company, Nestle, to assist Guyana’s private sector in the establishment of a local dairy industry. The Geneva mission, which was recently also accredited to Finland, is also working with the Finns in relation to education, according to Greenidge.

Additionally, through the efforts of the Geneva mission, the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Vojislav Šuc, visited Guyana a few weeks ago on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which was observed during a workshop. The activity was a huge success, he said.

In terms of intellectual property rights (IPR), Greenidge disclosed that the Geneva embassy is working with the WIPO to develop a National Intellectual Property Strategy (NIPS) which will be a blueprint so that Guyana can move forward with respect to IPR and copyright legislation.

The report is to be delivered during 2019. “The NIPS will take six months for them to complete,” he said, while recalling that IPR was a matter of political debate in 2013/2104 arising from a failure to respect agreements which the Government of Guyana had signed on to.

The question of copyright is a more vexing and contentious area, the Minister said, noting that a draft of the copyright legislation has been completed and Guyana is supposed to now work with the WIPO on industrial property legislation. “They are also proposing to work with the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs on the question of geographical indications,” he said.

This year will see production of reports in terms of intellectual, industrial and copyright legislation, he emphasised. He pointed out that Guyana has produced a number of writers and musicians including some like Leona Lewis and Debbie Cox, who have claimed Guyanese identity through parentage and who would be concerned about the illegal reproduction of their works.

“The problem they have is living outside of Guyana and publishing stuff from Guyana. They face the problem of copyright theft, sometimes committed by governments,” he said.

This is an area that the WIPO secretariat is to work on with Guyana and also the Caribbean Community (Caricom). The work with Caricom is a little more difficult as they are working with many countries, he said.