The Governing Body at its Fifth Session in 2013 initiated a process to look into possible areas of interrelations between the International Treaty, especially its Article 9 on Farmers’ Rights, the UPOV Convention and relevant instruments of WIPO (Resolution 8/2013, para 3). During the last biennium, based on inputs and information from Contracting Parties, stakeholders and others, a preliminary list of possible issues was developed and reviewed by the Ad Hoc Technical Advisory Committee on Sustainable Use.

The Symposium was held in response to the request of the Governing Body at its Sixth Session in 2015 to the Secretary “to continue engaging, in a mutually supportive manner with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to jointly, and including through a participatory and inclusive process, as appropriate and subject to availability of resources, finalize the process for identification of possible areas of interrelations between their respective instruments and the Treaty and report on the outcomes to the Seventh Session of the Governing Body” (Resolution 5/2015, para. 12).

The Symposium was jointly organized by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the International Treaty) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and it was open to Contracting Parties and observers of the International Treaty and UPOV, as well as to the general public. Arrangements were made for simultaneous interpretation into English, French and Spanish.

UPOV-ITPGRFA Symposium Video