Supporting indigenous communities at the grassroots

• Author: Brigitte Vézina - George Nicholas
• Position: Traditional Knowledge Division, WIPO - Project Director, Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH), Simon Fraser University, Canada
• Pages: 12-15

p. 12 2014 | 1

Countless innovative and creati ve businesses draw inspiration

from the world’s rich and diverse traditiona l cultures. Innova-

tions and creations rooted in tradition al knowledge (TK ) and

traditional cultural expres sions (TCEs) enrich the creative

economy, foster community enterprise development and boost

job creation, skills developm ent and tourism. Revenues from

the sale of handicrafts m ade using traditional methods, s kills

and knowledge transmi tted across the generations a re often

central to the livelihood of many communities.

Indigenous peoples and local communities are, in general,

aware of the commercial value of their T K and TCEs and their

potential to promote economic developmen t. But many of the

TK and TCE based products appear ing on the market, ranging

from clothing designs to pharmaceutical products are created

by third parties without the p ermission of the communiti es

that hold the TK and TCEs. Many of the objects, image s or

symbols commercialized i n this way hold great signicance

for indigenous communities and their unauthorized use can

cause them economic, spiritual or cultural harm.

Many communities feel th at they alone have the right to de-

cide who may or who may not exploit the ir TK and TCEs, and

the terms for doing so. They argue that they sho uld enjoy the

benets accruing from the commercial exploitation of, or re-

search into, their TK and TCEs, and insist that these as sets be

recognized as protectable und er intellectual property (IP) law.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS

CONCERNS

Such claims have not gone unhe ard and are reected in the

United Nations Declaratio n on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(2007) which states that indigenous pe oples “have the right to

maintain, control, protect and develop their i ntellectual property

over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional

cultural expressions” (Article 31).

As a rule, TK and TCEs do not fully qualif y for protection under

the IP system as it exists today. The “traditional” char acter of

these cultural assets – whi ch usually indicates they have been

SUPPORTING

INDIGENOUS

COMMUNITIES

at the grassroots

Photo: Brigitte Vezi na, 2010

By Brigitte Vézina, Traditional

Knowledge Div ision, WIPO an d

George Nicholas, Proje ct Director,

Intellectu al Property Iss ues in Cultural

Heritage (IPinC H), Simon Fraser

University, Canada

Traditional handicraft, Sultanate of Oman