TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Oct07/01)

10 October 2007


WIPO ASSEMBLY REFERS DG'S AGE ISSUE TO "FRIENDS OF CHAIR"
Published in SUNS #6331 dated 26 September 2007

Below is a report on the first day (25 September) of the WIPO General Assembly that was held recently in Geneva.

The opening of the Assembly was preoccupied with the issue of whether the WIPO Director General wrongly represented his year of birth.

This report was published in the South North Development Monitor (SUNS) on 26 September. It is reproduced here with the permission of the SUNS. Any republication or recirculation requirews the prior permission of the SUNS (sunstwn@bluewin.ch).

We will send you a few more reports of the WIPO Assembly.

With best wishes
Martin Khor
TWN

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WIPO Assembly refers DG's age issue to "Friends of Chair"
Published in SUNS #6331 dated 26 September 2007

By Martin Khor (TWN), Geneva, 25 Sept 2007


The WIPO General Assembly has referred the issue of whether the WIPO Director General wrongly represented his year of birth to a group of "Friends of the Chair", which will report back to the current session of the Assembly.

This was a "compromise solution" proposed by the Assembly President, Nigerian Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi, following more than a day's consultations with delegations that coordinate the WIPO regional groupings.

The compromise, which was agreed to by the Assembly this morning, reflected a continuing impasse among WIPO members on how to deal with the procedural and substantive aspects of the issue.

The decision to have a new Friends of the Chair group to continue discussing the issue was apparently made to enable the Assembly to adopt its agenda and to proceed with its normal business.

By this afternoon, diplomats (including some of those who are regional coordinating delegations) did not seem to be aware of the membership of the Friends of the Chair.

The crisis - for that is what it now amounts to - has a procedural and a substantive aspect. The procedural issue has been whether to remove or retain an agenda item relating to a WIPO internal audit report addressing the issue of the year of birth of the WIPO Director General Mr. Kamal Idris.

This question is now partly resolved, as the Assembly this morning agreed to amend the agenda item 12 to "Internal audit reports of WIPO issued since the last General Assembly (to be referred to the Friends of the Chair)".

Some members said it was their understanding that the Friends group must report back to this General Assembly, and the Chair confirmed this.

Attempts by a few developed countries to have agreement that the Friends present their report well before the Assembly's last day (so that there is enough time to decide on the issue) were opposed by several developing countries which said that what had already been agreed to in the consultations should not be unraveled by additional conditions.

The substantive issue revolves around an allegation that the WIPO Director General Mr. Kamal Idris until recently made use of a false year of birth (1945 instead of the real 1954), an issue which is the subject of the internal audit report.

The US and some other developed countries want the Assembly to discuss the report and to decide on follow-up action.

According to diplomatic sources, the US and some European countries consider that the Director General is guilty of unethical conduct, that the reputation of the organization has been affected, and they have asked him to leave his post before the expiry of his term in November 2009.

However, the African Group, which compromises 53 countries, objected to the issue being taken up at the Assembly. Several delegates are of the view that the DG is being picked on because he has not been willing to do follow the wishes of the developed countries.

A note detailing and countering several allegations made against the Secretariat and the DG in the past three years has been issued by the Secretariat.

A day of intense discussions in a small group made up mainly of regional coordinators and chaired by the Assembly President involved procedural issues, including the possibility of the Assembly taking a vote on whether the issue can or should be discussed.

The Assembly could not proceed with its other business until the agenda was adopted. The "compromise solution" to refer the issue to the Friends of the Chair has resolved the procedural issue, thus allowing the Assembly to proceed after losing more than a day.

However, the substantive issue of whether the Director General committed an unethical act, and whether action is to be taken, is still unresolved.

Following the adoption of the amended agenda, the Assembly heard general statements on the issues before the Assemblies made by coordinators of various groupings.

[A report on these statements will appear in the next issue of SUNS.]