President Correa proposes three amendments to the Constitution

During his weekly address on August 30, President Rafael Correa announced new amendments to the Constitution for errors he has found after a thorough analysis. These are Articles 57, 322 and 402.

Therefore, one of the additional amendments that will be presented in the fourth chapter is on the right of the indigenous communities, according to the president, these are repeated three times in the Constitution.

The first mistake , as he explained, is part of Article 57 in which “all forms of appropriation of knowledge, innovations and practices are prohibited.”. This would be replaced by the following proposal: “It is allowed the access, use and benefit from the collective knowledge provided where there is free consent , prior and informed of their rightful owners provided they participate fairly and equitably in the benefits obtained.”

Article 322: “all forms of appropriation of collective knowledge in the field of science, technology and ancestral knowledge is prohibited” will be replaced by “the intellectual property in accordance with the conditions stipulated by law is recognized and is prohibited the ownership over genetic resources that contain biodiversity and agro-biodiversity. “

Finally, Article 402: “the granting of rights including intellectual property is prohibited,” this shall be changed to: “rights shall be grantef, including intellectual property, on procedures and products or synthesized products obtained from the collective knowledge associated with national biodiversity, where communities, peoples and nationalities, as legitimate holders of such knowledge, participate fairly and equitably in the benefits in a sustainable way. “