The Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage will participate in the work of 25th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) within the intergovernmental committee concerned with the intellectual property, the resources and the heritage as well as the traditional knowledge and the folklore. The work session will be organized in Geneva during the period between 15 and 24 July 2013.
The Ministry of Culture will be represented by Mr. Ibrahim Al-Sayed who will deliver the message of, HE Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage to Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO. The message was an invitation for cooperation in the field of legislation to protect all forms of cultural expression and national folklore by organizing workshops for experts to exchange experience and set up proper regulatory and legal frameworks for the protection of the different forms of cultural expression.
He added that the Strategic Plan of the State in this field is the legal protection of the Qatari folklore, pointing that several debates will be organized about the Qatari legislations related to the intellectual property and its relation with the international conventions, particularly the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO 2003). Besides, he stated that this plan will include a review the Arab and international legislative texts, which represent guiding models for legislation in order to set up the legislations and the legal framework of the “intangible cultural heritage safeguarding” in the State of Qatar to strengthen the cultural specificity and the national identity.