Summary of IGC 32

December 5, 2016

WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) concluded a week-long session on December 2, 2016 in which a next draft of an international legal instrument on intellectual property and traditional knowledge was developed. A Seminar on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge was held on November 24 and 25, 2016, just prior to the IGC session.

This was the second session to address traditional knowledge under the new mandate for 2016-2017 and it was chaired by Mr. Ian Goss (Australia) who had circulated an informal information note prior to the session to assist participants in their substantive preparations for the meeting.

Plenary and informal sessions

Work during the week-long session was divided into a series of plenary meetings and “informals”.

The plenary began with discussion on policy objectives, subject matter and beneficiaries. Informals were convened on Tuesday and on Thursday to further discuss outstanding/pending issues to be tackled/solved. The group comprised around 40 experts, with up to six delegates per region nominated by the member states, as well as two indigenous experts nominated by indigenous peoples participating in the session. Other delegates were able to sit in as observers without speaking rights, with indigenous peoples also able to nominate two additional participants without speaking rights. All other participants were able to follow the deliberations via video and audio feed in an adjoining room.

The plenary requested Ms. Margo Bagley (Mozambique) and Ms. Ema Hao’uli (New Zealand) to act as “facilitators”. On November 29, 2016, the facilitators presented, as their “work-in-progress”, a note on:

policy objectives,
subject matter,
beneficiaries of protection, and
administration of rights/interests.

The aim was to elicit comments from member states prior to the production of a first revision (“Rev. 1”) of the draft text contained in document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/4.

Based on the discussions in the plenary and informals, the facilitators then presented to the plenary a Rev. 1 document on November 30, 2016, and a Rev. 2 document on December 2, 2016. The Plenary noted the Rev.2 as the basis for future work on TK and agreed to transmit it to IGC 34 (this will be inter alia a stock-taking session and it will take place in June 2017).

Certain member states made submissions (see documents WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/6, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/7, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/8, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/9 and WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/10) which were introduced and discussed in plenary.

The decisions and all the documents of the session are available online.

Like-Minded Countries Roundtable

On November 22 and 23, 2016, the Group of Like-Minded Countries organized a preparatory and informal roundtable to which delegations from all regions were invited.

Voluntary Fund

The WIPO Director General and the IGC Chair reminded the IGC that the WIPO Voluntary Fund for Accredited Indigenous and Local Communities has run out of funds and is in dire need of new contributions.

Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ participation

The WIPO Secretariat facilitated a preparatory meeting of the Indigenous Caucus (the meeting is referred to as the “Indigenous Consultative Forum”) on the Sunday before the session began, November 27, 2016, at WIPO Headquarters, as per previous practice. Additionally, the Indigenous Caucus organized daily meetings during the session, and also separately met with the IGC Chair. The WIPO Secretariat continued to fund secretarial services (secretariat, interpretation and translation) for indigenous and local communities at the session, provided by the Documentation Centre for Indigenous Peoples (DoCip).

Indigenous Panel

An Indigenous Panel , entitled “Outstanding/Pending Issues in the IGC Draft Articles on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge: Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Perspectives”, was held on November 28, 2016. The keynote speaker was Ms. Lucy Mulenkei, Member of the Maasai People, Kenya; Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network, Kenya; and Co‑Chair of the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network and the African Indigenous Women’s Organization.

The other two panelists were Mr. Rodrigo De la Cruz Inlago, Member of the Kichwa/Kayambi Peoples, Ecuador, and Representative of Call of the Earth – Llamado de la Tierra; and, Mr. Preston Hardison, Representative and Policy Analyst, Tulalip Tribes, United States of America. The Panel was chaired by Raymond Fryberg, Member of Tulalip Tribes, United States of America.

Final report

The initial draft report of IGC 32 will be prepared and circulated by January 27, 2017. It will be tabled for adoption at IGC 33.

Attendance

The Committee was attended by participants from 91 countries and 32 observers.

IGC 32 was chaired by Mr. Ian Goss of Australia, with Mr. Jukka Liedes of Finland and Ambassador Robert Matheus Michael Tene of Indonesia as Vice-Chairs.

Three organizations were accredited as new observers at the session.

IGC 33

IGC 33, which will address traditional cultural expressions, will take place from February 27 to March 3, 2017.

Video summary

Wend Wendland, Director of WIPO's Traditional Knowledge Division and Secretary of the IGC, sums up the session that addressed traditional knowledge.