Dear colleagues,

Please find below a message from the President of FICSA about the situation of the WIPO Staff Association.

Best regards,

The STU Council.

Dear Colleagues,

You will recall that the WIPO Director General summarily dismissed the President of the WIPO Staff Association, Mr. Moncef Kateb, in September 2014.

The WIPO Staff Association has informed us that the WIPO Director General is now bent on destroying the entire duly elected WIPO Staff Council and replacing it with a more compliant management-friendly model, at a time when WIPO Member States are still attempting to obtain a copy of the investigation report of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) containing findings of the investigation into allegations that the WIPO Director General had corrupted an IT procurement process and was involved in the theft of staff members' personal effects for DNA analysis without their knowledge.

All three Staff Federations of the UN common system, representing 120,000 international civil servants worldwide, recently wrote to the WIPO Member States to draw their attention to these extremely alarming matters, and called upon the Member States to insist that they be provided the full OIOS report so that they can carry out their responsibilities to ensure accountability and good governance at WIPO and, in full knowledge of the facts, take action against the WIPO Director General in accordance with the conclusions and recommendation of the OIOS investigation report.

Given the gravity and urgency of the situation, the time has now come to put a stop to the WIPO Director General's illegal interference in the staff's right to manage their own affairs in regard to staff representation and call a halt to the WIPO Director General's retaliation against the duly elected Staff Council for its whistleblowing activities.

Staff all over the world are kindly invited to demonstrate their support for the duly elected WIPO Staff Council by electronically signing the petition using the following link: http://www.labourstart.org/go/wipo2016.

The above-referenced letter, issued by the three Staff Federations (CCISUA, FICSA and UNISERV), as well as other background information, are available on the FICSA website under "News": http://www.ficsa.org/.

Thank you for your show of solidarity in defending the rights of staff and their elected representatives against this administration's union-busting tactics.

With best regards,

Diab El-Tabari

President