Tag Article | Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House

How to publish information on an ABS permit and generate an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC)

  23 May 2018

About the Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC)

In accordance with Article 6, paragraph 3(e), of the Nagoya Protocol, Parties that require prior informed consent (PIC) must provide for the issuance of a permit or equivalent at the time of access. The permit or its equivalent issued must also be made available to the ABSCH in order to constitute an internationally recognized certificate of compliance (IRCC)  (Article 17, paragraph 2).

Article 17, paragraph 3, further establishes that the IRCC shall serve as evidence that the genetic resource which it covers has been accessed in accordance with prior informed consent (PIC) and that mutually agreed terms (MAT) have been established, as required by the domestic access and benefit-sharing legislation or regulatory requirements of the Party providing prior informed consent.

The Protocol also provides that the IRCC shall contain the following minimum information, when it is not confidential: issuing authority, date, provider, unique identifier of the certificate, the person or entity to whom prior informed consent was granted, subject-matter or genetic resources covered by the certificate, confirmation that MAT were established, confirmation that PIC was obtained, and commercial and/or non-commercial use.

The IRCC plays a key role in enhancing transparency and monitoring the utilization of genetic resources along the value chain (research, development, innovation, pre-commercialization or commercialization). The IRCC helps by providing solutions to problems that can arise when utilization takes place outside of the provider’s country. See below examples of how the IRCC can help when utilization takes place outside of the provider’s country:

Problem - Permits or their equivalents issued by countries can come in different shapes, forms, and languages. These differences may make it difficult when used as evidence of compliance.Solution - The IRCC represents the permit in standardized format and in one or more of the six official languages of the United Nations. Once a permit or its equivalent is published on the ABSCH the IRCC is immediately generated and is available online. 
Problem - Permits or their equivalents may contain confidential information and therefore can be problematic to share publiclySolution - The IRCC is a representation of the permit or its equivalent at the international level. It creates a standardized and transparent way for provider countries to provide to users with evidence that the genetic resource that it covers has been accessed in accordance with PIC and that MAT has been established in compliance with the domestic requirements of the provider country without giving away confidential information. It is the role of the Publishing Authority (PA) or a Nationally Authorized User (NAU)  to ensure that no confidential information is shared on the ABSCH. 

How to publish information on a permit and generate an IRCC 

Sign-in to the ABSCH - to publish information on you will need to be designated as a Publishing Authority (PA) or a Nationally Authorized User (NAU) for a country.   

 

Navigate to Dashboard in the submit section and click on the Internationally Recognized Certificates of Compliance (IRCC)  link to load the list page displaying all drafts, pending publishing requests, and published IRCCs for your country.

 

Add or edit a record  To add a new record, click on the Add New button on the top right of the IRCC panel to open the submission form. To edit an existing record click the edit icon associated with that record. Fields that are mandatory are marked with an asterisk (*)

 

Complete the submission form  

TIP - It is a good idea to “save a draft” of your record frequently while you are completing the form, just in case there is a problem during the publishing process. 

Select the language(s) in which you would like to submit the record. Your record must be submitted in at least one official UN language. 
Country - This field is filled by default based on your user role and cannot be changed. 
Links to other internationally recognized certificate(s) of compliance (IRCC) that relate(s) to this permit - Sometimes a permit can be related to other previously issued permits, for instance to a permit for accessing a soil sample. Depending on the MAT, it is possible that some countries decide to issue specific permits for subsequently identified genetic resources from the taken soil sample. For such cases, the ABS Clearing-House offers the possibility to link different IRCCs together. IRCCs linked through this mechanism will be displayed together and thus facilitate tracking of the IRCCs.
Competent national authority (CNA) responsible for issuing this permit or its equivalent  - Provide the link to the CNA that granted this permit. The CNA must be already published in the ABSCH prior to publishing a IRCC. If you do not have a CNA published, please save this records as a draft and publish your CNA record
Reference number of the permit or its equivalent  - It is important to be able to link the IRCC to your national permit. This can be done by providing a unique reference number to the permit. This way if you receive a communique about this particular IRCC, you can use the reference number to locate additional  information that is not provide in this form (such as confidential information).  This field will also appear as the title of this record.
Date of issuance of the permit or its equivalent  - This field refers to the date of issuance of the national permit. This information is mandatory and key to ensure legal certainty regarding the right of the user to utilize the genetic resource covered by the permit.
Date of expiry of the permit or its equivalent - If the national ABS permit, or equivalent, includes an expiry date please add it here. Please note, two months before the permit expires, an email is sent to the CNA alerting of the date of expiry of the IRCC.
The provider - Please provide the name and contact details of the person or entity that holds the right to grant access to the genetic resources in accordance with domestic legislation. If you can not find the provider in the list please add a new contact.  New contacts can be created dynamically. This field is mandatory if it is not confidential. Click the checkbox if this information confidential. 
Confirmation that prior informed consent (PIC) was obtained or granted - If PIC has not been obtained or granted, this record cannot be posted in the ABS Clearing-House and, therefore, the internationally recognized certificate of compliance will not be issued. 
Additional information about PIC - In these fields you can either type of upload relevant information. 
Person or entity to whom prior informed consent (PIC) was granted - Please provide the name and contact details of people or entities (both foreign and domestic) to whom prior informed consent was granted. If the information is marked as confidential that person will not be able to receive the courtesy copy of the IRCC or the CPC. This field is mandatory if it is not confidential. Click the checkbox if this information confidential. 
Confirmation that mutually agreed terms (MAT) were established - If no mutually agreed terms (MAT) have been established, this record cannot be published in the ABS Clearing-House and, therefore, an internationally recognized certificate of compliance can not be issued.
Additional information about MAT - In these fields you can either type of upload relevant information.  For example, this may include information on conditions for access and for benefit-sharing and other relevant information included in the MAT. Detailed information may be provided in an attached document.
Subject-matter or genetic resources covered by the permit or its equivalent - Please provide information on the subject matter or genetic resources covered by the permit. This could include biota at any taxonomic rank, which may carry a taxonomic name. It may also include a locality of collection of the material. It may also be possible to identify the genetic resource through reference to a voucher specimen or field notes held in an identified archive or collection
Keywords to describe the subject-matter or genetic resource(s) covered by the permit or its equivalent - The collection of this information is important for facilitating harmonized searches throughout the records. Please select all relevant keywords that could assist in describing the subject-matter or genetic resource(s) covered by the permit or its equivalent.

Indicate if the permit or its equivalent covers commercial and/or non-commercial use -  This field is mandatory if it is not confidential. Click the checkbox if this information confidential. 

Additional information about the specified uses covered by the permit or its equivalent or use restrictions - Access can be granted only for specified uses (e.g. for medical use), or on the contrary access could be granted for multiple uses but with specific restrictions applying (e.g. restriction to obtain intellectual property rights). If applicable, please provide any additional information about the specific uses or any use restrictions covered by the permit or its equivalent.
Conditions for third party transfer - Where a permit or its equivalent establish conditions or restrictions regarding the transfer to a third party, it will help to make this information available through the ABS Clearing-House in order to monitor the utilization of genetic resources and enhance legal certainty.
Copy of the permit or its equivalent, or other relevant open-access document - Please use this field to upload a copy of the permit or its equivalent or other relevant document if desired, or provide a link to its equivalent on a national website. Include a short description of the link or attachment. Note that this information will be made publicly available through the ABS Clearing-House and therefore should not contain confidential information, nor links to information that has restricted access.
Additional Information - In these fields you can either type of upload  any additional relevant information.

Review your record 

Correct any errors or missing information before publishing.

Publish your record

Do final review of the information you have entered, make sure no confidential information has been entered, then click “publish” if you are the publishing authority,  or “request publication”  if you are an NAU to send a request to the publishing authority to make the information available online.  

Once published you may also do a quick check in the search or your country's profile page to make sure your record is available online.  Once an IRCC is published the ABSCH automatically emails a copy to the ABS National Focal Point, the Competent National Authority and the contacts listed under the person or entity to whom prior informed consent (PIC) was granted.  

For more information please see the article on:  The flow of information through the ABS Clearing-House to support monitoring the utilization of genetic resources

Congratulations your record is publicly available on the ABS Clearing-House.  

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