TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (May08/01)
09 May 2008
Third World Network


WEBCAST OF CIVIL SOCIETY MEETING WITH WIPO DG CANDIDATES


Next week (13-15 May), the WIPO Coordination Committee, (made up of 83 governments) will be meeting to select a new Director General for WIPO.

In an attempt to better understand the candidates, their views and vision for WIPO, Third World Network, and a group of civil society organizations invited all 15 of the WIPO Director-General candidates to meet with civil society groups on April 15, 2008 in Geneva.

7 candidates participated in the meeting: Mr. José Graça Aranha from Brazil, Mr. Francis Gurry from Australia, Mr. Masood Khan from Pakistan, Mr. Philippe Petit from France, Mr. Bojan Pretnar from Slovenia, Mr. Yoshiyuki Takagi from Japan, Mr. James Otieno Odek from Kenya.

A list of questions posed to the candidates are found below.

A Webcast of the whole meeting is now available in five sequences:
Video 1 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5093362967627971571&hl=en [Introduction & Responses by Mr. José Graça Aranha, (Brazil)]
Video 2 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1312827334844132820&hl=en [Responses from Mr. Francis Gurry (Australia) & Mr. Masood Khan (Pakistan)]
Video 3 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8845402997045229188&hl=en [Responses from Mr. Philippe Petit (France) & Mr. Bojan Pretnar (Slovenia)]
Video 4 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5105921436401561633&hl=en [Responses from Mr. Yoshiyuki Takagi (Japan) and Mr. James Otieno Odek (Kenya)]
Video 5 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8998862960353259859&hl=en [Closing Remarks by all Candidates]

List of Questions posed to the Candidates:

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 “Scenarios for the Future Compendium”?. The compendium is available at http://www.epo.org/topics/patent-system/scenarios-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?

Further information on the meetings well as the written responses that have been received so far can be found on the CIEL website at:
http://www.ciel.org/Tae/WIPO_DirGen_15Apr.html

• The letter requesting a meeting can be found here .
• The Agenda for the meeting is available here .

Best Regards
Sangeeta Shashikant
Third World Network