United Nations & Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

United Nations & Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

This study surveys the construction of traditional knowledge protection policies by the United Nations agencies engaged in development. It reveals that UN officers tend to perceive this knowledge to exist in a form comparable to the standardized knowledge sources used in scientific culture (particularly in representations of this knowledge as a “system” and/or “technology”), and stress the need to protect this knowledge as a potentially valuable economic resource. Given that indigenous scholars and activists perceive knowledge as sacred and relational entities, this study argues, that the factors which determined the international work on traditional knowledge protection had to do more with the interests of the states in controlling the domain of rights for intellectual resources possible to gain from indigenous settings then the interests of and needs experienced by individuals inhabiting indigenous communities. The study employs content analysis and is valuable for the researchers engaged in examination of contemporary international knowledge policies.

This study surveys the construction of traditional knowledge protection policies by the United Nations agencies engaged in development. It reveals that UN officers tend to perceive this knowledge to exist in a form comparable to the standardized knowledge sources used in scientific culture (particularly in representations of this knowledge as a “system” and/or “technology”), and stress the need to protect this knowledge as a potentially valuable economic resource. Given that indigenous scholars and activists perceive knowledge as sacred and relational entities, this study argues, that the factors which determined the international work on traditional knowledge protection had to do more with the interests of the states in controlling the domain of rights for intellectual resources possible to gain from indigenous settings then the interests of and needs experienced by individuals inhabiting indigenous communities. The study employs content analysis and is valuable for the researchers engaged in examination of contemporary international knowledge policies.