The Centre for Science, Culture and the Law at Exeter University of Exeter, Exeter Law School Amory Building Exeter EX4 4RJ United Kingdom To: UN Expert Mechanism on the Re: Report on Repatriation of Rights of Indigenous Peoples ceremonial objects and human
[email protected] remains under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Submission of The Centre for Science, Culture and the Law at the University of Exeter Dr Mathilde Pavis and Dr Andrea Wallace | University of Exeter, UK 1. INTRODUCTION We bring the Expert Mechanism’s attention to the importance of intellectual property and related rights (IPR) to the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains, and to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, articles 11, 12 and 31). With this in mind, this submission outlines key aspects of IPR for states, cultural heritage institutions and Indigenous peoples to consider in the context of repatriation. This submission also proposes a step-by-step strategy around IPR repatriation. IPR may come in the form of copyright (or authors’ rights), performers’ rights and other neighbouring rights, database rights, patents, plant breeders’ rights, rights associated with traditional cultural expressions (TCE), traditional knowledge (TK) or sui generis protection of genetic resources.1 This list is not exhaustive and further protection may be implemented by national jurisdictions in addition to the conventional IPR listed above. It is important to highlight that IPR in