Yesterday, China blocked the ad-hoc accreditation of Wikimedia chapters of France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and Switzerland as official observers to the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Previously, China had rejected the Wikimedia’s Foundation application to observer status to this UN agency.

WIPO SCCR discussions where norm setting in copyright is concerned are of utmost importance to access to knowledge organizations, and observer status is a necessary condition for the six Wikimedia chapters to participate in such discussions. Not admitting the chapters as observers is unacceptable and runs counter to established practice and criteria for admission of observers at WIPO.

China opposed the applications, suggesting that they are subsidiaries of Wikimedia Foundation, whose projects violate the ‘One China’ Policy. China’s position was implicitly supported by Bolivia, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Venezuela, which stressed the need for consensus to approve the chapters’ applications.

Group B, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States urged the Committee to abide by the principles of transparency and inclusiveness and grant observer status to the chapters, as they fulfilled all the relevant criteria. They further stressed that these civil society organisations would enrich the debate at the Committee, as they have done on national legislative procedures.

The six Wikimedia chapters are legitimate civil society stakeholders in the area of access to knowledge and COMMUNIA strongly condemns the decision to not admit their applications to the status of observer of a Committee that shapes the legal framework for access to knowledge and information.

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The signatories of the letter recall that the WIPO discussions, where norm setting in copyright is concerned, are of utmost important to access to knowledge organisations:

“Given the key role of WIPO in shaping normative and practical work around copyright that impacts how researchers, educators and the public at large access and use knowledge, not admitting the Foundation as an observer would be unacceptable and it would run counter with the established practice on criteria for admission of observers at WIPO.”

This is the second time the application of the Wikimedia Foundation for observer status at WIPO was not approved. China was again the only country to reject the Foundation’s application, suggesting that the Wikimedia Foundation was spreading misinformation via the Wikimedia Taiwan chapter. The United States expressed their support for the Foundation’s application, calling for a transparent process, accessible for civil society organizations. The regional coordinator for Group B (the group of industrialized countries at WIPO, which includes many European Union member states) followed suit, underlining that the Foundation’ application had complied with the admission criteria.

According to Amanda Keton, General Counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, “the Wikimedia Foundation’s absence from these meetings deprives our communities of an opportunity to participate in this process”. The Foundation said it will reapply for official observer status in 2022. We hope that by then WIPO Member States will have done everything in their power to facilitate admission of the Foundation, so that Wikimedia can start participating in the discussions of this UN agency without any further delays.

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