St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
275
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Today I want to explore some of the international law-making efforts with respect to indigenous and traditional environmental knowledge. My work over the past three years has involved the study of the ongoing efforts underway to implement state obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity ("CBD"), and the related efforts of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to recognize, protect, and compensate for the contributions of indigenous and traditional communities' knowledge, innovations, and practices to the preservation and maintenance of biological diversity. This is a fascinating process of international lawmaking and an increasingly important field of global politics, which may or may not result in the establishment of new intellectual property rights. Perhaps more significantly, these efforts have served to expose the shortcomings and inadequacies of existing regimes of intellectual property, contributing to a crisis of legitimacy in the world intellectual property system. WIPO has recognized this to a degree, by acknowledging that the organization faces new criticism, questions, and inquiries because in the process of developing new international standards, many nations and groups felt excluded. Thus, according to statements made by the Deputy Director General, Geoffrey Sau Kuk Yu, WIPO has recognized that it must reach out to "new beneficiaries" and "move downstream into civil society" to engage users of intellectual properties as well as creators of new kinds. Only if groups feel they are a part of the dialogue and they have some stake in the system, he acknowledged, will they support it rather than undermine it.
Recommended Citation
Rosemary J. Coombe,
The Recognition of Indigenous Peoples' and Community Traditional Knowledge in International Law,
14
St. Thomas L. Rev.
275
(2001).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol14/iss2/4