WIPO Staff Council President To Testify Before US Congressional Committee

The World Intellectual Property Organization official who informed the US House Foreign Affairs Committee of WIPO shipments of computers to Iran and North Korea will testify before the committee on Tuesday.

Committee leadership has raised questions over whether the longstanding technical assistance programme of WIPO is in violation of UN sanctions on those countries.

Azzeddine Moncef Kateb, president of the WIPO Staff Association, has been given permission by WIPO to testify on 24 July in Washington, DC. The committee said, however, that some senior WIPO officials were refused permission to testify by WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. This could not be confirmed at press time.

The House committee announcement is here [pdf]. The briefing is entitled, World Intellectual Property Organization Technology Transfers to Rogue Regimes.

Today (20 July), Gurry answered some questions about the technical assistance issue (IPW, WIPO, 20 July 2012).

The House committee sent a strongly worded letter to Gurry dated 16 July, available here [pdf].