[Ecommerce] WIPO Accreditation for April 11 meetings on Development Agenda

[James Love]

Re:  Meeting with WIPO regarding accreditation for the Intersessional
Intergovernmental Meeting (IIM) on the Development Agenda, and the
Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to
Intellectual Property (known within WIPO as PCIPD rather than PCCDRIP)

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10 March 2005, Geneva

Today I met with Geoffrey Yu, the WIPO Deputy Director General for the
Economic Development Sector, and Sherif Saadallah, the Executive
Director for the Office of Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for
Development.  They are I believe the main WIPO officials responsible for
the meetings of the week of April 11, which will address the WIPO
Development Agenda.

We had an extensive discussion of the accreditation issues for the
meetings of the week of April 11, and I agreed to offer some additional
information and clarifications about the accreditation issues to this
list, based upon our conversation.  The position shared by CPTech and
many other NGOs is that the DA proposal that "WIPO-accredited IGOs and
NGOs are invited to participate as observers in the meetings" would
include NGOs that obtain ad-hoc accreditation for the meeting, as is the
case for many other WIPO committees, including for example the IGC, SCP,
SCCR, and ACE to mention only a few.

WIPO has interpreted the term "WIPO-accredited NGOS" to mean "NGOs with
Permanent Observer status at WIPO."  This has the practical effect of
excluding nearly all of the developing country NGOs working on access to
medicine or access to knowledge campaigns, and many big international
NGOs like Consumers International, Oxfam, and important library,
software, human rights, and agricultural groups.....for example.

The WIPO Secretariat says its decision is based upon the fact that the
IIM and the PCIPD are creatures of the WIPO GA, which only admits NGOs
with permanent NGO status.  Many other committees have different
procedures, which allow ad-hoc accreditation.

We discussed and agreed that NGOs could continue to apply for ad-hoc NGO
status in the April 11 meetings, and that member countries could propose
that such applications be accepted for the April 11 meeting.

Also, WIPO said that there would be no limit on the size of the
delegations from the permanent accredited NGOs, and the 1 to 2-person
limit was only meant to apply to the number of persons who could sit in
the main room.

Thus, I am pleased to say that at this point, anyone who can join  one
of the permanently accredited NGO delegations can get into the building
and watch the proceedings from an overflow room, and talk to delegates
and other NGOs.  However, the problem of finding more balance among
those who can actually speak has yet to be resolved.  But, certainly
WIPO has provided the possibility that this will be resolved in favor of
ad-hoc accreditation, if there is sufficient support among member
countries.  Unfortunately, the US has already indicated to CPTech that
they support the WIPO Secretariat ruling to exclude ad-hoc
accreditation.  We are not sure of the views of the EU.

I encourage NGOs for now to (a) find a place on a permanent accredited
NGO, and (b) apply for separate ad-hoc accreditation, and lobby country
delegates to support ad-hoc accreditation.

Finally, NGOs who are interested in WIPO should work with Thiru to
prepare the fairly simple applications needed to obtain permanent NGO
status.

   James Love, CPTech

---------------
General Assembly Decision on a Development Agenda
October 4, 2004
...
(2)The General Assembly decides to convene inter-sessional
intergovernmental meetings to examine the proposals contained in
document WO/GA/31/11, as well as additional proposals of Member States.
To the extent possible, the meetings will be convened in conjunction
with the 2005 session of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for
Development Related to Intellectual Property. The meetings, open to all
Member States, will prepare a report by July 30, 2005, for the
consideration of the next General Assembly. WIPO-accredited IGOs and
NGOs are invited to participate as observers in the meetings.



--
James Love, Director, CPTech, http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.:  1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Mobile +1.202.361.3040
james.love@cptech.org