The DG of the WTO Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Executive Director of the ITC Ms Pamela Coke-Hamilton and the Ass DG of WIPO, Global Affairs Division, Mr Edward Kwakwa on a tour of the Experience Space, where indigenous people exhibited their products during the WTO Public Forum 2024
This write-up identifies the thread that links a selected number of events that took place at the WTO Public Forum in order to help women and youth entrepreneurs understand or relate to their stories and thus identify themselves as capable of contributing to better trade and a better world. Under the theme “Re-Globalization: Better Trade for a Better World,” this year’s Public Forum held 138 sessions. A number of them addressed, directly or indirectly, intellectual property, women or technology. We highlight a few below.
The conversation titled “Towards Ethical and Inclusive Trade: A Focus on Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Cultural Expressions and Fashion”, organized by the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative and the World Intellectual Property Organization, highlighted the importance of enabling ethical and fair use of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) in fashion to ensure inclusive trade opportunities for Indigenous Peoples. In a webinar on “Preserving Masaai Culture: a conversation with Amb Bitange Ndemo”, ILaEd.org, OWIT Brussels and OWIT Kenya organized a captivating talk which delved into the vibrant world of Masaai heritage, exploring its impact, intellectual property protection efforts, and future expectations. Many concerns were raised but left hanging. The conversation at the WTO Forum on TCEs and fashion addressed some of these concerns and further emphasised the importance of holding meaningful discussions between traditional products holders or TCEs owners and the fashion industry. One highlight was the fact that fashion industry expressed frustration at failure to know whom to contact for permission to use TCEs products in fashion production.
The panel, “Digital Product Passport as a Catalyst for Inclusive Trade”, organized by iTraceiT and CUTs International, in part shed light on how the fashion industry can know know the origin of the input through using tracing technology. While the panel focused in diamonds, Ms Jennifer Moriconi, CSO for iTraceiT and founder of OWIT Brussels, found sense in our proposal to research on other products that might benefit from tracking and tracing, including indigenous peoples’ products. Ms Fanaz Javadi Farahzadi explained the role of intellectual property in the traceability, which can apply to indigenous peoples and fashion industry or diamond minors and the diamond industry.
With some women friends after the panel discussion on Digital Product Passport
The two different panels addressed a similar problem, thus stressing the importance of partnerships, which we continue to pursue.
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