Ryser will deliver address at Ghana World Summit in August
Dr. Rudolph Ryser, CWIS Board Chairman, as accepted an invitation to deliver an address at the 4th Annual Global Summit on HIV/AIDS, Traditional Medicine and Indigenous Knowledge 2-5 August 2010 at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. His presentation: Implementing Traditional Healing Practices and Indigenous Knowledge through Internationally Agreed Instruments ABSTRACT States’ governments and Indigenous Peoples have much to gain by the negotiation, ratification and implementation of new international conventions and other agreements giving the force of law to customary practices for the benefit of millions of suffering from for the lack of treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. In some African states and Asian states, as well, there are more traditional healers per hundred thousand people than there are conventional medical practitioners. Sharing knowledge between traditional healers and conventional medical practitioners will increase the reach of health systems to many millions more people who do not have access to health support through conventional health systems. Protections for traditional healing knowledge, intellectual property, and patents are needed within and between states to maximize the benefits of traditional healing systems. Such protections must be encoded in international and domestic laws. New binding agreements between states’ governments and with indigenous communities providing principles and a legal framework for promoting sharing of knowledge with protections of traditional systems will enhance the capacity to deliver effective and beneficial health services to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS and chronic diseases that are increasingly afflicting rural and semi-rural indigenous populations. I present several proposals for language appropriate to international and inter-state agreement to advance the sharing of knowledge between indigenous knowledge holders and conventional health practitioners.