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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, New Petition

UN GATE, Jan 10  – The UN World Intellectual Property Organization, whose work on North Korea's cyanide patents and retaliation Inner City Press has reported on, is still at it.

Inner City Press previously reported that "WIPO CIO and whistleblower Wei LEI has been summarily dismissed by WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. This has been years in the making, ever since Wei Lei testified against Gurry in an OIOS investigation." Wei Lei and allies have tirelessly raised the issue to member states (the same states which have yet to prevail on Guterres to relent on his retaliatory ban on the critical Press in New York); and now on January 9, 2020 in Geneva, Wei made this presentation in Geneva, part of a global fightback including the UN Gate in New York: "Total WIPOut1 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – a case of systematic wipeout of staff representation and suppression of labor and human rights

Background of Judgment No. 4155 WIPO Staff Association (WSA) served all WIPO staff for 60 years Membership covers 50% of staff members The only staff representative body in WIPO recognized by the international staff federations In 2017, WIPO Administration decided not to recognize WSA: WSA no longer consulted for management issues affecting staff Forced to move out of its office Officials’ release time was taken away Mandate of organizing social and sporting events were curtailed Communication to staff was subject to the Administration’s approval Meanwhile, the Administration orchestrated new elections of staff representatives WSA filed a complaint!

Part II – Suppression of labor and human rights Suppression of freedom of association and speech Abuse of investigative power Abuse of organization’s legal and administrative resources and procedures Conflict of interest by design! Governing by fear

 “Current Situation”, WIPO Ombudsperson's report, April 2016 Part III – Why suppressive practices can thrive? Staff members have little rights Ineffective check and balance on executive power Privileges and immunities

Impunity Part IV – Impunity No More!

Independent investigation by external panel of experts Suspension of WIPO’s Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry Calling all the candidates of the next Director General to commit to Full implementation of Judgment No. 4155

Genuine reform of management practices Separation of powers for Internal Justice from Executive Organization – obligation to report criminal complaint Staff – obligation to file concern of policy violation Effective protection of whistleblowers."

  We'll have more on this.

   That's WIPO -  the wider UN of Antonio Guterres has banned Inner City Press from entering its campus since 3 July 2018, claiming that its Lieutenant Ronald Dobbins targeted ouster of Inner City Press from a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres on June 22 then from a meeting about his budget on July 3 were "altercations." Next this ban was extended  beyond the UN campus to the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, for a July 10 press conference by the UN affiliated but ostensibly independent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which as Inner City Press has previously reported helped North Korea with its cyanide patents and retaliated against it staff and media. Inner City Press was e-mailed an invitation on July 2 and replied with an RSVP to cover it. Marshall Hoffman of WIPO's public relations firm Hoffman PR wrote back, "Thanks. We will see at the press conference." After that, Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq was asked why Inner City Press is banned and said it is pending a review of two "altercations" - both of which were improper and unilateral ousters of Inner City Press by UN Security's Dobbins and officers, four of whom refused to give their names. Soon, there was this follow up e-mail from WIPO's flak Marshall Hoffman: "Dear Matthew, It has come to my attention that your accreditation to the UN has been suspended pending an investigation into an incident. Given the suspension, I regret you will not be able to attend the WIPO press conference."

Now the UN has gone so far as to put Inner City Press on a "banned from UN" list it does not make public; Guterres' security nearly got Park East Synagogue security to oust Inner City Press from Guterres' October 31 speech... on tolerance. This is today's UN: the ban must be reversed.

We'll have more on this - and on this: how untransparent and inaccessible is Antonio Guterres, as UN Secretary General? The day he canceled his first UN Headquarters press conference in six months, he was ironically the guest of honor of the United Nations Correspondents Association. He was scheduled to make remarks at 6 pm - but it was not in the UN Media Alert. Inner City Press, whose RSVP to UNCA was never responded to, streamed the event from the tourists' balcony, edited here. Then Guterres' UN Security guards physically ousted Inner City Press from covering the UN Fifth Committee's July 3 meeting on his proposal to fire UN staff and move the jobs- then on July 5 banned Inner City Press from entering the UN. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II.

While Guterres' UNCA fan club said nothing, others did. Guterres blathered on about how he supported the media in Portugal - dubious - and then cuts a cake for his UN Censorship Alliance. Earlier Inner City Press asked Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room to UNCA, if the event was open press but he refused to answer and ran off. Inner City Press asked the spokesman from the President of the General Assembly, who is listed as attended but will not speak, why it is not in the UN Media Alert. The spokesman said to ask UNCA. But UNCA never responded to the RSVP of Inner City Press through the Free UN Coalition for Access. In the middle of the event the claim was that UN correspondents didn't have to RSVP - not what the notice said. The event was not even in the June 26 UN Media Alert. Last week, Dujarric spoonfed sound bytes to a prominent UNCA members and is working with them to try to further restrict Inner City Press, here - Inner City Press was in fact ousted on June 22, video here, story here). The Free UN Coalition for Access questions this and the propriety of this explicit focus by the UN Correspondents Association on the UN's "causes" rather than simply covering the UN as it is; it and corruption are among the reasons Inner City Press quit UNCA (and co-founded FUNCA).

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