This was the Developement Agenda Group (DAG) statement from Monday at the WIPO Geneval Assembly.
Thank you Madam President.First of all, I would like to congratulate you upon your election as Chair of the General Assembly of WIPO. Our group is confident that under your able stewardship we will achieve important results for developing countries, as well as for the intellectual property system.
At the outset, the Development Agenda Group would like to recall that its membership, consisting of 19 countries, see the implementation of the 45 recommendations of the Development Agenda as a priority for this organization. In this session of the General Assembly, many decisions such as the one on the enhancement of the mandate of the IGC have a direct link with one or with multiple recommendations of WIPO´s Development Agenda. After 6 years of studies and discussions, WIPO’s Development Agenda recommendation 18 still urges us to accelerate the IGC process. This General Assembly must therefore make the decision to accelerate the process towards a Diplomatic Conference.
Madam President,
We must also remember an old item in member states` agenda: the discussion on WIPO Governance which has been in the PBC Agenda for a long time. Nonetheless, discussions on the proposals presented by member states have not been productive. In the last sessions of the PBC, the African Group presented a proposal for discussion that could be the basis of a formal process of consultations on the subject. In the context of this new proposal, we urge all delegations to constructively engage in a formal consultation process to devise a policy that will make WIPO activities more efficient, participative and transparent.
We would like to recall that WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and, as such, it should be a member-driven institution. Nonetheless, in this Assembly, member states, representing millions or even a billion of people, were asked to follow a three minutes limit imposed by the Secretariat to General Statements, while at the same time, a paralel event will stall discussions among member states for two hours, in spite of a very busy agenda in front of us. Paralel events are important but they should not affect the substantive discussions among member states unless there is a decision on this subject.
These governance issues are not only present in the organization of this session of the General Assembly, but also in other areas such as the implementation of a strategic realignement program that was not mandated by member states. It is up to member states to reassert that the service orientation of this organization is aimed first and foremost at fulfilling the requests of WIPO member states.
WIPO´s strategy of Human Resources should also be reformulated in order to build a more diverse organization, where nationals of different countries can implement decisions agreed by all member states. Today, more than 50% of WIPO staff come only from one region and there is no strategy currently in place aimed at bridging the representation GAP among regions.
Regarding the decision on Program 18, IP and Global Challenges, DAG urges all member states to aprove a reporting mechanism to CDIP that will inform and allow countries to provide guidance to the program and its activities. This system will not only increase the transparency of the initiative, but also potentialy engage member states in its implementation.
Another item for discussion related to the Program and Budget is the new definition of development expenditure. It is important that member countries can count on an apropriate index that identifies budget allocations that are aimed at bridging the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries.
On the implementation of the CDIP mandate, it is unfortunate that we have to recall that the coordination and monetary mechanism still has no oversight on the CWS and PBC. Our understanding is that the development dimension is an integral part of the discussions both on standards and the WIPO budget. Nevertheless, some delegations still hinder the full implementation of the CDIP mandate related to the debate on IP and development.
On discussions on Design Law, our group reiterates its position that capacity building and technical cooperation should be adressed properly, in an article that should be an integral part of the instrument.
As a final remark, DAG members would like to recall the historic result of the Marrakesh Treaty, aimed at adressing the “book famine” for visualy impaired, blind or otherwise print disabled. The agreement reached last June proved that member states can work together in multilateral fora in response to a call from the international civil society. DAG urges WIPO members to strenghen this will.
THANK YOU