Shakeel Bhatti

Dr Shakeel Bhatti is the inaugural Secretary of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Before creating the Treaty Secretariat, Shakeel was Head of the Genetic Resources, Biotechnology and Associated Traditional Knowledge Section at the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization where he was responsible for WIPO’s work on intellectual property law in relation to genetic resources, biodiversity, traditional knowledge and biotechnology.

He is currently completing a second PhD on bioethics, biotechnology patenting and the right to food, and has taught international patent law and genetic resource policy at several universities in India, Japan and Sweden.

Dr Bhatti is a member of the Expert Group on Rights to Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge at the World Trade Institute and the Social Science Research Council Expert Group on Intellectual Property Rights and Cultural Flows.