Intellectual Property Rights have moved to centre stage
Intellectual Legislation, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, seek to impose international norms on developing countries to promote trade in bio-technologies and human knowledge. The exact form of the national legislation to be adopted to secure these international obligations is the subject of heated debate between those representing the interests of transnational corporations, national governments and local communities. At the same time, some environmentalists have been promoting the commercialisation of forest products and indigenous pharamcopeias, as ways of saving forests and making them vulnerable.
After centuries of disparagement, indigenous peoples suddenly find their traditional knowledge coveted by outsiders and they are demanding that mechanisms be established to effectively protect their rights. The problem is, how? Western legal regimes have a poor record of accomodating indigenous rights, and in the past many laws adopted to protect indigenous peoples interests have done more harm than good.
Read more
See the section on the Convention on Biological Diversity at IWGIA's website.
Indigenous Heritage and Self-determination, Tony Simpson (ed.) IWGIA 1997
Article on intellectual property and the WIPO by Mattias Åhrén in Indigenous Affairs 1/2002. The whole issue of Indigenous Affairs 1/2002 can be downloaded as a PDF file by clicking here. |
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 Maasai, Tanzania
Photo: Jens Dahl
 Pygmy, Congo
Photo: Espen Wæhle |
