RI's Cultural Heritage Prone to Claim by Others

Jakarta (Antara) - Indonesia's cultural heritage is prone to claim by other countries because the draft law on Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expression, which could protect the country's cultural heritage, has not been endorsed yet. The Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, which constitutes the country's intellectual property rights institution, is unable to do anything to protect the country's cultural heritage because of the absence of the law. "Actually, it will not pose a problem if other countries seek permission before imbibing our cultures and do not claim them as their own. Yet, if there is a country which claims them, our institution will not be able to protect them," said Surahno, coordinator of the National Team for the Handling of Intellectual Property Rights Violations, during a workshop on intellectual property rights here on Wednesday. Surahno said the draft law on Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expression (PTEG) had been drafted five years ago. A total of 24 meetings had been held by 167 member countries of the World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO) but there have been no outcomes. "To protect communal properties, we have proposed international legal protection to protect bio-diversity resources, cultures and others. However, the proposal has yet to be approved. Advanced countries such as the United States and those in Europe have rejected it because they do not have details about the sources," he said.*