Dear colleagues,

On May 15, 2008, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be choosing a new Director-General. Historically, the selection process has been non-transparent and closed to civil society. In an attempt to open up the process, CIEL, Third World Network, and a group of civil society organizations invited all 15 of the WIPO Director-General candidates to meet with civil society groups on April 15, 2008 in Geneva. Candidates were also asked to respond in writing to 8 questions.

* The letter requesting a meeting can be found here.

* The Agenda for the meeting is available here.

A Webcast of the whole meeting in five sequences is available below:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Further information on who attended the meetings well as the written responses that have been received so far, can be found on the CIEL website at:

http://www.ciel.org/Tae/WIPO_DirGen_15Apr.html

News reports on the WIPO DG candidates race and on the meeting with civil society can be found at:

Responses to 5 IP Watch Questions

Report on meeting with Civil Society

Report on Candidates meeting with member states

We encourage civil society and other stakeholders to make their opinions and evaluations known and to engage as fully as possible in the discussion about who the best person should be to lead to WIPO.

Dalindyebo Shabalala Center for International Environmental Law and Sangeeta Shashikant Third World Network