Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The Tribune today runs a detailed story about police visiting the Wipo (World Intellectual Property Organization) offices Monday to take DNA samples from the saliva of a dozen persons whose diplomatic immunity has been lifted. The newspaper notes at the end of the article that Wipo, the police and cantonal attorney Daniel Zappelli all refused to comment on – or verify or deny – what the Tribune calls a visit that was supposed to remain secret.
The DNA story is the latest in a long string of critical reports by journalists and internal gossip and innuendo that have plagued the organization for months. The DNA story relates to a series of malicious letters reportedly circulated internally, among managers, making accusations against Deputy Director General Francis Gurry and his wife, both lawyers from Australia. Gurry was nominated 13 May to succeed Kamil Idris as director general. His nomination will need confirmation in September from Wipo’s general assembly. Idris has headed the organization since 1997, but his term is ending a year early.
The Swiss government has been in the lead in efforts by member countries to "renew" Wipo’s management, saying the organization has lost credibility because of its management problems.
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 27 May 2008.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Lake Geneva region, Media, Swiss news
September 24th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
[...] :: Wipo’s new head points to digital threat Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Francis Gurry of Australia was elected the new director general of Wipo (World Intellectual Property [...]
June 17th, 2009 at 9:36 am
[...] approval 16 June of a team proposed by the organization’s Director General, Francis Gurry. Wipo was heavily criticized for months for management problems and the Swiss government spearheaded efforts to reform the [...]