WIPO will host two meetings next week on the Development Agenda which the WIPO General Assembly welcomed last September. WIPO put out a media advisory today putting some heavy spin on the lock-out of civil society NGOs. The media advisory suggests that while "The WIPO secretariat has taken note of non-accredited NGOs that have requested to participate in the [development agenda meetings], on an ad hoc basis," the secretariat isn't going to do much about these requests. The advisory says, "Any departure from the original General Assembly decision on this question rests firmly within the hands of the member states," and refers to the General Assembly decision that "WIPO-accredited IGOs and NGOs are invited to participate as observers in the meetings."
This media advisory suggests that the General Assembly language binds the secretariat to close out civil society NGOs, but the restrictive gloss on this language is a creation of the secretariat alone. First, the language on its face does not distinguish between permanent accreditation (held mostly by opponents of the development agenda) and ad hoc accreditation (the status generally given to supporters of the agenda). Second, the secretariat's interpretation of this language also contradicts historical practice. In the past, the secretariat has granted ad hoc accreditation for any legitimate civil society groups that have not participated in WIPO long enough to acquire permanent accreditation, with very little hassle. The Secretariat has so far denied ad hoc accreditation to all 19 groups which have requested it.
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In a very nervy move, the advisory goes on to say, "It should be noted that any NGO can seek permanent accreditation at WIPO by simply filling out an application form. This request is submitted to WIPO’s member states for consideration at their annual General Assemblies meetings in October. Some 260 IGOs and NGOs already have observer status at WIPO." The advisory of course fails to mention that most civil society NGOs haven't been active in WIPO long enough to acquire this accreditation, that ad hoc accreditation has been simple enough to acquire in the past that permanent accreditation was not a pressing goal of many civil society NGOs, and that "Of the 193 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) eligible to attend WIPO's Development Agenda summit, only 24 work explicitly on improving conditions in developing countries" (link). The lockout of civil society groups has inspired protest, and the submission of a petition signed by residents of 56 nations and hundreds of civil society groups.
The advisory also purports to link to the substantive Development Agenda proposal but in fact links to a subsequent letter from the Brazilian mission--let's hope this is a clerical error that will soon be fixed. The document also makes reference to a proposal by the U.S. that has been roundly criticized, and to a proposal by Mexico entitled entitled "Intellectual Property and Development." This latter document sounds juicy, but it's not online. Again, let's hope this gets fixed ASAP, since the meeting is only a few days away.
UPDATE 4-9-05: The Mexican proposal is now online.