Sean Flynn, Director, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property

July 17, 2024

In the waning hours of July 16th, the WIPO General Assembly adopted a “request” of the Director General for two meetings of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR):

“The WIPO General Assembly … 

(iii) Took note of the request by the Delegation of Chile on behalf of Latin American and the Caribbean Countries to have two sessions of the SCCR in 2015. This was supported by all groups. This is without prejudice to the Director General’s Prerogative to establish the WIPO Calendar.”  

The request of the Committee follows a period where the number of meetings of SCCR has become contentious. The Secretariat failed to schedule two meetings called for by the Committee in SCCR 42.1 It was in this context that Chile, on behalf of GRULAC, proposed decision language to “recommend the reestablishment of two sessions of the SCCR from 2025.” In response to a question from Botswana about whether the Assembly could “decide” the matter, rather than recommend, the Legal Counsel summarized WIPO Rule of Procedure 3.1 that it is for the Director General to decide on the “dates and place” of meetings.2 

The implication of the events and the Legal Counsel’s statement might sound like the DG is asserting the authority to ultimately decide how many meetings of a given committee the schedule allows for. But General Rule of Procedure Rule 3.2 requires that the DG “must” schedule an extraordinary session of a WIPO body in response to a “request” of one-fourth of the States members.3 

The decision of the General Assembly on the meetings of the SCCR must be read in light of Rule 3.2. Given that the “request” for two SCCR’s is noted to be “supported by all groups” of member states (i.e. more than one-fourth of members), it appears this is a “request” that the Director General cannot refuse. 

GRULAC’s original request was to establish a default rule of the SCCR to meet at least twice a year “from 2015”. Members could decide a default rule on the number of meetings in the next meeting of the SCCR, by amending its rules of procedure.4

  1. Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Forty-Third Session Geneva, March 13 to 17, 2023, para 25
    www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_43/sccr_43_summary_by_the_chair.pdf (“At SCCR/42, the Committee agreed that there should be two regular SCCR sessions during 2023, and this was reported in the Chair’s Summary (SCCR/42/Summary by the Chair).  However, for a variety of reasons, only one session was scheduled in the WIPO calendar.  At SCCR/43, some member states expressed concern with only having one SCCR session in 2023 and requested that a second session be scheduled in the latter half of the year to respect the outcome of SCCR/42.  The Committee agreed that there should be a second session of the SCCR (SCCR/44) during the week of November 6, 2023.  The Secretariat has indicated that the Committee could be accommodated during that week.  On an exceptional and non-precedential basis, the Committee should meet for three days instead of five and the time should be allocated as follows: The time on the first two days should be divided equally between broadcasting and limitations and exceptions after the handling of preliminary, administrative agenda items.  The third day should be devoted to other matters, specifically copyright in the digital environment.”). See Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Forty-second Session Geneva, May 9-13, 2022, Para 9.
    www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_42/sccr_42_summary_by_the_chair.pdf ↩︎
  2. The legal counsel stated: 
    “I would just recall for Delegations that the WIPO general rules of procedure do indeed provide and vest the authority in establishing the date of sessions, their duration and their place by the Director General who does so in full consideration of the full WIPO calendar of meetings for any given year and sends out the convocation letters of invitation accordingly subject to the timeline provided in the rules of procedure.” ↩︎
  3. See Rule 3.2 (“The opening date fixed for an extraordinary session must not be more than four months after the day on which the Director General has received the request to convene that session, except where the author or authors of the said request express their willingness to accept a later date.); Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, Article 6(4)(b)(“The General Assembly shall meet in extraordinary session upon convocation by the Director General either at the request of the Coordination Committee or at the request of one-fourth of the States members of the General Assembly.”). Cf. Special Rules of Procedure of WIPO Standing Committees, Introduction (“As a default rule, The General Rules of Procedure of WIPO apply, as far as possible, to the subsidiary bodies of WIPO which include the WIPO Committees.”).  ↩︎
  4. Rule 45 (“(1) The special rules of procedure of each body shall enter into force on being adopted by that body. (2) Each body may amend its own rules of procedure.”). Rule 56 (“Rule 56: Amendment of General Rules of Procedure (1) These General Rules of Procedure may be amended, as far as each body which has adopted them is concerned, by a decision of that body, provided that the said decision is taken as far as possible in joint meeting and that the said body accepts the amendment according to the procedure laid down for amendment of its own rules of procedure.”); Special Rules of Procedure of WIPO Standing Committees (“the subsidiary bodies may create their own Special Rules of Procedure, as provided by Rules 1.1 and 45.2 of the General Rules of Procedure of WIPO.”). ↩︎