Idris sent an email to the WIPO staff on Tuesday with the news and the letter also touched on matters concerning the nomination and appointment process for his successor and the pending 08/09 budget.
The first line of the internal email is believed to say: “I should like to inform all staff members that I have decided to advance the process for nominating and appointing a director-general, based on the process for the nomination and appointment of director general of WIPO, adopted by the General Assembly of WIPO in 1998.”
Idris also said that the General Assembly and Coordination Committee will “shortly be issuing a circular inviting member states to nominate a candidate for consideration”. He added that the candidate will be decided by the Coordination Committee in May 2008 and the new director-general will commence his/her term at next year’s General Assemblies in September 2008.
The United States, which had demanded Idris’s resignation, welcomed the news as a “positive development”. In a statement, Ambassador Warren Tichenor, America's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said that the US is looking forward to participating in the nominating process for a new director-general.
He added: “The member states and the employees of WIPO deserve to have an organization that is led with the highest professional and ethical standards, and we believe that this renewal of leadership will bring new confidence and vitality to the organization.”
Idris has been director-general since September 1997, succeeding Árpád Bogsch. His troubles began when rumours started to circulate in the Organization last year that the director-general had misled officials about his age.
The matter was investigated by WIPO's Internal Audit and Oversight Division and it issued a report, subsequently leaked to journalists in Geneva in February this year. The report concluded that Idris had sought to change his records at WIPO to show that he was born on August 24 1954, despite signing numerous earlier documents showing his date of birth as August 24 1945.
The controversy over Idris reached a crescendo at this year’s WIPO General Assemblies, held in September and October. Member states were divided, mainly into two camps – the developed countries and the developing countries – and as a result of this division the 2008/09 budget did not receive the two-thirds majority required.
This stalemate led to further questioning of the credibility and accountability of the Organization, and in October Idris was sent an open letter from some of his staff which added to his woes.
