Today at WIPO saw a flat-out disgraceful cooking of the deliberative process. The administrators of the meeting — the chair and secretariat — are pushing hard to make this treaty pass, even if no one wants it to. The solution to the deadlock is "regional meetings" in which countries that oppose the treaty can be isolated and arm-twisted into coming into line, and where few or no public-interest NGOs will be present. Some of the most populous countries in the world — India and Brazil — along with many others called for a better approach: any region that wants a meeting can have one, but the real action would be at an "inter-sessional meeting" held in Geneva, with all countries represented. Even though these countries presented a solution that would have given regional meetings to those who wanted them, the chair steadfastly refused to hear from them — eventually, he used a straw poll to discard their proposal altogether, and then called it "democracy." (Oh, and even more of the public-interest group papers were stolen and trashed today)
India: Before the lunch break I pushed you more for the floor more than
I normally would. The reason was that I had a dental appointment. I
realize my ideas may not have been clearly conveyed because my speech
may not have been clear. I hope my speech is a little clearer now. What
I was suggesting was that Brazil's suggestions for open consultations
inter-sessionally were an eminently sensible idea. I would have thought
that given the open ended consultations are wider in scope and the fact
that the differences that emerged in this meeting were essentially
differences across regions, it would be more beneficial to have an
inter-sessional meeting which is precisely what we are now engaged in.
Some meeting like this that brings regions together in inter-sessional
consultations. But I see that none of that has been reflected. And since
we believe our conclusions are those of the committee rather than the
conclusions of the chair, we would request you to show some indication
that our contribution has not been entirely dismissed out of hand. Thank
you.
