Towards a convention on knowledge.

• Author: Ho, Mae-Wan
• Position: ISIS-SGR-TWN Discussion Paper

This document was circulated to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Originally drafted by Mae- Wan Ho, this paper now reflects contributions from many sources and individuals. The authors are asking people of all backgrounds and affiliations to express support for this draft Convention that also serves as a catalyst for linking up everyday lives and concerns with western science and indigenous knowledge. The authors hope that the draft Convention will continue to act as a touchstone for discussion, to promote a world culture in which knowledge and its fruits are available to all.

What does a "convention" imply?

"Convention" is to be taken in the most general sense of a "coming together." It is the coming together both of civil society and on knowledge that will have major impacts on the agenda for global sustainability.

This "Convention" is intended solely as a civil society document, with no legal binding status. It expresses a commitment of civil society to develop and use knowledge for the good of all.

Why "knowledge?"

"Knowledge" is to read in the widest sense to include all knowledge systems that exist in the world today, to underscore the holistic nature of knowledge systems and their independent and equal status. Thus, "knowledge" in the West will include science and other ways of knowing, whereas for indigenous communities, "knowledge" might be synonymous with "indigenous science.

Focusing on knowledge also stresses the important point that knowledge is not independent of technology, or the application of science. Knowledge inspires, and guides and misguides technology. This is as true for western science as it is for holistic indigenous knowledge systems.

Why we need it

Developments since September 11 have brought biological weapons and nuclear weapons back on the global agenda, raising real prospects of the misuse of science and scientists to military ends.

At the same time, the US and UK governments are introducing "emergency" legislation and measures that pose further threats to the free exchange of scientific information and knowledge, already com promised by the rampant commercialization of science in recent years.

The commercialization of science and the increasingly intimate relationship between universities and industry have undermined public trust in science and scientists. More seriously, independent science and scientists working for the public good are becoming things of the past. This is coming at a time when technologies are getting more powerful and uncontrollable, both as weapons of mass destruction and in terms of destroying the social and moral fabric of human societies.

The new trade-related intellectual properties regime in industrialized nations is an unprecedented privatization of knowledge, which has also encouraged the biopiracy of indigenous knowledge and resources on a global scale. This regime is being imposed on the rest of the world through the World Trade Organization, as part of a relentless drive towards economic...