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12 Int'l J. on Minority & Group Rts. 1 (2005)
Protecting Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Medicines of Indigenous Peoples through Intellectual Property Rights: Issues, Challenges and Strategies

handle is hein.journals/ijmgr12 and id is 7 raw text is: International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 12: 1-24, 2005. 1 © Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. Protecting Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Medicines of Indigenous Peoples through Intellectual Property Rights: Issues, Challenges and Strategies MPAZI S1NJELA AND ROBIN RAMCHARAN* 1. Introduction One of the great issues of justice of our times is the validation and vindication of the rights of indigenous people under international law, the protection of their culture and lifestyles and the safeguarding of their intellectual property heritage. There are an estimated 300 million indigenous people in over seventy countries worldwide. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political character- istics that are distinct from those of the dominant groups in their respective societies. They have fought strenuously for the recognition of their identities, nationally and internationally. This study coincides with the final year of the United Nations Decade for Indigenous peoples. A decade ago in its resolution 48/163 of 21 December 1993, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of the Worlds' Indigenous People, from 10 December 1994. A decade later, it is increasingly recognized that local, 'traditional knowledge' (TK) or 'indigenous knowledge' (IK) constitutes part of the cultural and eco- nomic wealth of both developing and developed countries.' Greater awareness is forthcoming about the contributions that such knowledge can make to the process of scientific advancement and technological change. TK systems exist in diverse fields including food and agriculture, biodiversity conservation, nutrition and medicine. Traditional medicines (TM) still constitute the most important source of healing for much of the world's population living in poverty and distanced from urban centers with sophisticated health systems. In this vein, the South Centre calls attention to the fact that 85 to 90 per cent of the basic livelihood needs of the world's poor are based on the direct use of biological resources (and * Mpazi Sinjela is Director of the WIPO Worldwide Academy. Robin Ramcharan is a Consultant with the Academy. See W. Wendland, 'Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore: WIPO's Exploratory Program' IIC, Vol. 33 (pp. 485-504) for a discussion of the definition of traditional knowledge and related terms such as indigenous knowledge. See also J. Mugabe, 'Intellectual Property Protection and Traditional Knowledge: An exploration in International Policy Discourse', paper presented to a WIPO Seminar on Traditional Knowledge, 1998. <www.acts.or.ke>. Mugabe notes that TK is broader than IK, which is narrower in scope but subsumed in the former.

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