Committee Meetings

A Stronger Voice for Indigenous and Local Communities (IGC)

The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), meeting in its ninth session from April 24 to 28, put into operation a Voluntary Fund to enhance participation of indigenous and local communities in its work. Following pledges by the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme, SwedBio, and France, the Fund is expected to support directly the participation of geographically and culturally diverse groups of representatives of indigenous and local communities in the next IGC session.

The session opened with a panel of indigenous representatives from Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Panama, the Philippines, Russia, and Vanuatu, chaired by a leader of the North American Tulalip Tribes. Each explained the needs and concerns of their diverse communities to guide the IGC’s work.

The IGC took up a renewed mandate, with many delegations voicing the expectation voiced that it should move towards tangible outcomes. The Committee considered the subject matter, focus and level of detail that such outcomes should have. It reviewed the interplay between the international dimension and national legal systems, and the relationship with other international instruments and processes.

The IGC’s work on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions currently centers on two complementary sets of draft provisions of the objectives and principles of protection. Based on discussions over eight past sessions, the experience of more than 70 countries, and an intersessional stakeholder commentary process, the draft provisions outline possible policy and legal space for protection against misappropriation and misuse, and help define the legal measures for this protection. Although still in draft form, they have been widely consulted upon and have already served as a benchmark for a range of international, regional and national policy processes. The ninth session further reviewed these draft materials, debating the appropriate form, legal content, and core principles of any outcomes of the IGC’s work on protection of TK and TCEs. The Committee agreed on an extended duration of its next session, (December 2006), in part to ensure a full review of intersessional comments made on these materials.

The IGC continued its...