September 19, 2022
WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) concluded its 44th session on September 16, 2022. It addressed traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs).
IGC 44 was chaired by Ms. Lilyclaire Bellamy of Jamaica, with Mr. Jukka Liedes of Finland, Mr. Yonah Seleti of South Africa, and newly elected Mr. Felipe Cariño of the Philippines as Vice-Chairs.
The IGC requested Mr. Paul Kuruk (Ghana) and Ms. Thea Seferovic (Australia) to act as “Facilitators”. Following the discussions at the IGC’s plenary and an open-ended contact group, the Facilitators presented to the plenary a revision of “The Protection of Traditional Knowledge: Draft Articles – Facilitators’ Rev.” and a revision of “The Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions: Draft Articles – Facilitators’ Rev.” on September 16, 2022. The IGC decided to transmit the revised texts to IGC 45 for further consideration.
The IGC Chair announced that she would develop, in a consultative manner through informal consultations, a text on TK and TCEs to facilitate the work of the IGC and attempt to narrow the gaps.
The mandate of the IGC for the biennium 2022/2023 provides that the IGC “may establish ad hoc expert group(s) to address a specific legal, policy or technical issue”, and “the results of the work of such group(s) will be submitted to the IGC for consideration”.
The Plenary agreed that an ad hoc expert group on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions be organized on December 4, 2022, prior to IGC 45.
The decisions and all the documents of the session are available online.
WIPO 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, September 11, 2022, in a hybrid format. Additionally, the Indigenous Caucus organized daily meetings during the session, and also separately met with the IGC Chair and with Member State delegates. The WIPO Secretariat continued to fund secretarial services (secretariat, interpretation and translation) for indigenous peoples and local communities at the session, provided by the Documentation Centre for Indigenous Peoples (Docip).
With the previous contribution of Finland and the new contribution of Germany to the WIPO Voluntary Fund, three indigenous representatives will be funded to attend IGC 45 in December 2022.
An indigenous panel, which addressed “Collective Nature of Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities”, was held on Monday morning.