Demonstrative and Comparative Study of Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Cultural Enjoyment and Rights to Intellectual Properties

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For the research on concrete guarantee of indigenous peoples' right to cultural enjoyment, the investigator participated in the influence assessment of the Biratori dam construction to the Ainu culture. The Nibutani Dam decision by Sapporo District Court in 1997 indicated that a dam construction might infringe on the right to cultural enjoyment of Ainu people. The cultural assessment in Biratori was conducted in response to this indication. As a result of examining the assessment process in detail, it became clear that, when preserving native culture as guarantee of the right to cultural enjoyment, a suitable participation of the people concerned is indispensable and that the people take an initiative in examination of preservation measures.As to the guarantee of intellectual property rights, the investigator studied the relevant international movements and machineries, such as CBD and WIPO, as well as the state of preservation in a case of Ainu's traditional cultural products, such as Ainu pattern. As a result, it became clear that there is serious limit in protecting native intellectual property within the framework of the Western intellectual property rights system, and that in the case of intellectual properties of Ainu people, they lack a mechanism of managing rights on behalf of the people.Among the problems common to these is that the structure for exercising these rights collectively has yet to be developed at the people's side. About these problems, examination is due to be continued in a research project by the Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research from 2007 fiscal year.