Posts Tagged: "House Committee on Foreign Affairs"

Whistleblowers testify on on alleged Gurry abuses at WIPO to House Foreign Affairs Committee

The third witness at the House foreign affairs subcommittee hearing was Matthew Parish, legal counsel to WIPO Staff Council. He testified on behalf of WIPO Staff Council members, who are prohibited by the Director General from providing testimony on issues related to whistleblowing or wrongdoing. “It is not an exaggeration to say that members of the Staff Council live in daily fear for their jobs and their careers,” Parish’s statement reads. “WIPO seems to have set a new low when it comes to accountability and management of its affairs.” Parish also spoke to secret raids ordered by Gurry to obtain personal effects from staff members for the collection of DNA as well as Gurry’s actions in dismantling a disciplinary regime in place at WIPO.

Steve Brachmann

February 29, 2016

The Need for Accountability at the World Intellectual Property Organization

Based on my experience I can report to you that the vast majority of the people at WIPO are competent, dedicated and deliver as required, many of them well beyond that. But this belies a profoundly serious problem with governance. The agency, in my opinion, is run by a single person who is not accountable for his behavior. He is able to rule as he does only with the tacit cooperation of member countries who are supposed to act as WIPO’s board of directors. And he is ultimately protected by an anachronistic shield of diplomatic immunity.

James Pooley

February 28, 2016