Daren Tang, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Today, on August 9, we celebrate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
On this day, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reaffirms its commitment to engaging with indigenous peoples and helping them use intellectual property for their social, economic and cultural well-being.
Last year, WIPO Member States adopted by consensus the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, the first WIPO instrument to include provisions relating to Indigenous Peoples. 44 States, from both developed and developing regions, have signed this historic Treaty, and two have already ratified it. Just 13 further ratifications are needed for it to come into force.
This, alongside with continuing discussions at WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee relating to other topics of interest to Indigenous Peoples, shows WIPO’s continued commitment to making the IP ecosystem relevant to these custodians of wisdom, heritage and knowledge.
Beyond international negotiations and discussions, we also work with Indigenous Peoples on the ground. Our Community Entrepreneurship Program helps indigenous women like Yolanda Hernández Gómez, who is Tzotzil and weaves by hand in Mexico’s Chiapas region, to make strategic and effective use of intellectual property to grow their businesses. This benefits not only Yolanda, but also the other Tzotzil women artisans who are part of the same cooperative as her. Our programs, projects and support have reached 400,000 youth, 300,000 women and 200,000 SMEs in the past four years.
The theme of the International Day this year is “Indigenous Peoples and artificial intelligence (AI)”, a topic with particular resonance in the world given the impact of AI on innovation, creativity and culture. Let us on this day remind ourselves that technology is here to serve the needs of humankind, and find the best uses of these technologies to allow them to preserve, protect, promote and empower the collective wisdom, spirit and accumulated knowledge of those who came before and those today who are the custodians of this knowledge.