WIPO Indigenous Fellowship Program

Since 2009, when the WIPO Indigenous Fellowship Program was launched, members of Indigenous and local communities have worked in WIPO’s Traditional Knowledge Division on issues relevant to Indigenous Peoples. These include:

• the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC);
• outreach to Indigenous Peoples as well as local communities;
• WIPO’s cooperation with the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The fellowship responds to the reciprocal needs for stronger capacity in the rapidly growing domain of Indigenous intellectual property (IP) law and for strengthened capacity on IP law and policy for Indigenous lawyers and policy advisers.