[Ip-health] IP-Watch: WIPO Director General Candidates Prepare To Face Governments, NGOs

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php?p=3D1002



10 April 2008
WIPO Director General Candidates Prepare To Face Governments, NGOs


By William New
The candidates to be next director general of the World Intellectual
Property Organization will get a chance to show their talents next
week to government and nongovernmental representatives.

On Monday, 14 April, the candidates will face WIPO members in the
plenary hall, one candidate at a time, according to sources. The next
day, many of them will meet with civil society groups.

With the governments on Monday, each candidate will be given 25
minutes to use as they wish; they could make presentations or answer
questions. The questions were prepared by the WIPO regional groups and
sent to them in advance. Each of the seven regional groups could send
three questions, and any question may be asked of any candidate during
their time.

On 13-14 May, possibly extending to a third day, the 83 members of the
WIPO Coordination Committee, the UN organisation=92s executive body,
will narrow the list of 15 candidates down to one. Their
recommendation will go before the full WIPO General Assembly for
confirmation in September. Biographies of the candidates are available
on www.wipo.int. Interviews by Intellectual Property Watch with the
candidates have been posted to www.ip-watch.org.

Next week=92s informal meeting, which will run from 9am to 7pm with
interpretation, is open to all members of the Coordination Committee
and all observers, which means the full WIPO membership of 184 members
may attend. It is informal and fully voluntary. All candidates have
accepted the invitation to attend.

In addition, consultations are continuing between regional groups and
Coordination Committee Chair Hilde Skorpen of Norway, mainly on
procedural details of the May meeting, such as how many rounds of
voting should take place, with how many candidates to be considered
for the next round of voting, sources said. The May voting process
will follow WIPO Rules of Procedure (pdf) for voting by secret ballot.

The objective of consultations and the 14 April meeting is to open up
the process, Skorpen told Intellectual Property Watch. =93Ensuring the
process is fully transparent is a main concern,=94 she said.

Civil Society Meeting with Candidates

In a separate event on 15 April, candidates will meet with civil
society groups in Geneva.

Most candidates have agreed to attend the meeting, according to
organisers, which is designed as an opportunity for nongovernmental
representatives to =93discuss their vision for the future of WIPO,
including WIPO=92s relationship with civil society,=94 they said.

The event is sponsored by a large and diverse set of nearly 20 civil
society groups, including: 3D-> THREE, Center for International
Environmental Law, Edmonds Institute, Essential Action, Free Software
Foundation Europe, International Environmental Law Research Center,
International Federation of Library Associations, International Gender
and Trade Network, IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International,
Library Copyright Alliance, Oxfam International, Public Interest
Intellectual Property Advisors, Public Services International,
SEATINI, and Third World Network.

The group has put eight questions to the candidates, asking that those
present be prepared to give a five minute answer on any of them, and
for all to submit their answers to the questions in writing no later
than 30 April. Contacts are Dalindyebo Shabalala of CIEL or Sangeeta
Shashikant of Third World Network.

The group said it in its letter to the candidates that it hoped they
would follow the precedent set by candidates for the post of WTO
director general who met with civil society organisations to discuss
their vision and goals in January 2005, prior to Pascal Lamy=92s election.

It is unclear how the candidates are meeting with industry
representatives.

Civil society questions:

1. What is your strategic vision for WIPO in addressing the challenges
for IP regimes in the 21st century, for example, those elaborated by
the European Patent Office in =93Scenarios for the Future Compendium=94?.
The compendium is available at http://www.epo.org/topics/patent-system/scen=
arios-for-the-future.html
.
2. What would be your three top priorities if elected as the Director
General?
3. How do you think civil society can be better integrated into WIPO
processes, particularly awareness-raising, technical assistance and
norm-setting activities? For example, should civil society be given
the regular opportunity to make submissions on substantive issues that
WIPO would then disseminate to Member States and permanent observers?
4. How can WIPO ensure that its norm-setting processes are based on
empirical evidence and an assessment of both negative and positive
economic, environmental, social and human rights impacts?
5. How should WIPO mainstream the development agenda into all of its
activities, particularly greater emphasis on policy space, use of
flexibilities in favor of sustainable development objectives, and
access to knowledge, especially for least developed countries?
6. What would be your priority recommendation for implementation in
each cluster of the WIPO Development Agenda Recommendations and how
would you implement it?
7. What action would you undertake when countries express concern over
the negative impact of IPRs in particular areas such as education,
libraries, access to medicines, and access to climate change
technologies?
8. What benchmarks would you propose for yourself by which civil
society could hold you accountable during your term?

William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch.

------------------------------------------------------------


Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997