From 27 June to 30 June 2011, representatives from the like minded group of countries including Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Namibia, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and Zimbabwe met in Bali, Indonesia to discuss the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. This group submitted a joint recommendation to the WIPO secretariat (WIPO/GRTKF/IC/19/8) requesting the following:
Calls upon the 19th Session of the IGC to recommend to the 40th Session of the WIPO General
Assembly in September 2011:
- to convene a Diplomatic Conference in 2013;
- to renew the mandate of the IGC to continue its work and undertake text-based negotiations with the objective of reaching agreement on a text/s of an international legal instrument (or instruments) which would be submitted to the Diplomatic Conference in 2013;
- to convene adequate number of Special Sessions of the IGC during the biennium, in addition to the four regular sessions of the IGC, to facilitate timely finalization of the text/s. To this end, a detailed work program, including a schedule of special sessions of the IGC, shall be adopted by the General Assembly.
The 19th session of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is meeting this week in Geneva (18-22 July 2011) to make a a decision on the modalities of a possible international legal instrument (or instruments) to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore.
The full text of this proposal can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/tk/en/wipo_grtkf_ic_19/wipo_grtkf_ic_19_8.pdf