Protecting traditional knowledge and expressions of culture in the Pacific

Abstract

The Pacific region has been a global pioneer of initiatives for the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) and expressions of culture (EC). The first regional initiative for the protection of TK and EC was the Regional Consultation on Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights, held in April 1995, which issued the Suva Declaration 1995.1 The declarants committed themselves to raising public awareness of the dangers of expropriation of indigenous knowledge and resources; the encouragement of chiefs, elders and community leaders to play a leadership role in the protection of indigenous peoples’ knowledge and resources; and to incorporate the concerns of indigenous peoples to protect their knowledge and resources in legislation by including ‘Prior Informed Consent or No Informed Consent’ (PICNIC) procedures and exclude the patenting of life forms. The Suva Declaration was one of a number of indigenous persons’ declarations that had followed the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.2 This activism in part stimulated the convening of the UNESCO/WIPO World Forum on the Protection of Folklore in Phuket in April 1997. There were calls at this forum for the establishment of an international regime to protect TK and EC. WIPO’s response was the organization of expert missions to investigate the situation around the world. Concerned about the apparently slow progress being made in the formulation of this international regime, the Pacific Islands Forum Trade Ministers Meeting in 1999 authorized the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) to address this issue. In 2002, the Model Law on Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Culture was completed and was subsequently endorsed by the SPC Ministers for Culture for adoption by member countries, followed by Forum Trade Ministers in 2003. SPC members, in addition to the Pacific Island States, included Australia, New Zealand and the USA. These countries urged SPC members to await the results of the international negotiations being conducted at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which appeared promising given the establishment in 2001 of establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). As it has turned out, the work of the IGC has been very slow. During the first ten years of its existence the IGC has concentrated on the formulation of ‘objectives’ and ‘principles’ which should animate the protection of traditional cultural expressions