Monica Boţa Moisin

Monica is changing the way that Indigenous people, ethnic groups, and local communities can protect their traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, by designing the concept of cultural intellectual property, and a framework that allows groups to design fair partnerships with companies on an equal footing. In doing so, she is strengthening the link between cultural and biodiversity at a critical moment for environmental sustainability.

Monica has created and is implementing a set of tools for Indigenous people, ethnic groups and local communities to identify and act as custodians for their Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE). Examples of Traditional Knowledge ((TK) include, among others, particular craft techniques handed down across generations, traditional medicinal properties of plants, agricultural techniques, etc. Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) are the tangible and intangible expressions of Traditional Knowledge and include particular Indigenous and traditional designs or styles, traditional music or other art forms, cuisine, etc. Almost all lie outside the formal economy. As such, apart from the exceptions that fit established IP protections, e.g. patents and trademarks, they are exposed to misappropriation on the one hand, and, on the other, do not share the same potential material benefits or incentives for innovation that formal IP laws support. Currently, no international legal framework exists to protect cultural intellectual property that does not fit the parameters required by traditional IP law.

Monica uses the term “cultural intellectual property” (CIP) to encompass TK and TCEs and designate a system for legally protecting TK and TCEs. She provides a methodology for communities of traditional culture to collectively design their own process for protecting and sustaining cultural intellectual property. She has developed the 3C RULE CONSENT. CREDIT. COMPENSATION™ ("the 3Cs Rule") as a new and simple framework that can help custodians of TK and TCEs to protect their intangible heritage better, have fair and equitable partnerships with companies from creative industries, and get remuneration to support the continuous development of their cultural expressions and crafts.

So far, efforts to create legal frameworks in this space—where existing IP law doesn’t always apply—have been unsuccessful. Because they are not working, Monica is, instead, directly empowering the communities to shape what they want to see and put it into action through soft law (without waiting for legal change). Monica has developed the 3Cs Rule as a soft law, contract-based framework whereby, e.g., a company desiring to use a traditional cultural expression in their product line agrees to use the 3Cs framework in engaging the custodians of that TCE. Soft law depends on voluntary compliance, but it has proven effective in other areas of human rights, where companies have valued such voluntary compliance as a way for them to gain reputational advantage by going above and beyond what they are required to do by law.

Starting in the textile industry, her 3Cs Rule approach is to bring on board artisans from Indigenous groups, ethnic groups, and local communities as equal knowledge partners and recognize them as such at different levels: at a community level, in existing different classic intellectual property systems, and in domestic national law and corporate practices.

As climate change discussions are being held around the world, from the youth-led manifestations in the street to the highest offices of international organizations, Monica has become a much-needed trusted guardian and “translator” of worlds, weaving in biocultural impact into those spaces.

The way we look at TK and TCEs is rooted in a conservationist perspective developed over time. They are perceived as fragments of the past which stood the test of time and that need to be further preserved to be passed on to generations. However, Western knowledge is prioritized over Traditional Knowledge, which is viewed as anecdotal and rudimentary compared to scientific knowledge which places greater value on documented, written, and quantified data. Consequently, IP law does not cover all cultural intellectual property for several reasons. First, IP law protects ownership, but in the case of many Indigenous people, ethnic groups, and local communities where traditions are passed down through generations, there is no clear ownership by an individual or entity. Indigenous and local communities may claim collective custodianship of Traditional Knowledge and cultural expressions, but not ownership, as required by the law. Many communities do not even recognize the concept of intellectual property. Second, IP law requires documentation, but things like traditional dance or music may be unwritten, and documenting TK and cultural expressions can violate the practices of some Indigenous communities that honor oral traditions. TK is a “living” body of knowledge that contributes to the cultural and spiritual identity of the community, making documentation difficult.

This separates the knowledge of these TCEs from their active role in restoring the balance between humans and nature. In cases where TK is used in society, they follow an open-source mentality where this knowledge is considered part of the public domain. Because it has been passed on from generation to generation, it belongs to the community, and cannot be separated from land or religion. While this can be a positive thing, the open market leads to the exploitation of TK and TCEs, as well as of the people who safeguard them. This paradigm has shifted towards understanding how TK and TCEs can become instruments to be taken off the “museum shelf” and accessed by society at large equitably.

Often, the communities of traditional culture live in biologically diverse environments and have coexisted for generations with plants, land, water—land and experience with value for medicines, nutrition, and sustainability. Based on research by The Nature Conservancy, 37% of the climate problem can be solved by applying solutions known by local communities. The effects of climate change and loss of biodiversity show us that Indigenous people, ethnic groups, and local communities who live in synergy with nature and maintain culturally embedded sustainability practices can become knowledge partners in the global quest to develop solutions that nurture the people and the planet. Yet, artisans represent half of the 696 million people who live in extreme poverty (less than $1.90/day). They suffer from the effects of a globalized economy where the handcrafted production of local communities is considered inferior to industrial production, inferior to science and technology. With no legal literacy, representation, holistic frameworks, and spaces for dialogue that look at craft custodians as dignified knowledge partners, they will continue to be discriminated against and undervalued.

The protection of Indigenous peoples and local community rights goes beyond legal or informal frameworks to ensure equitable use of TK and TCEs; it goes to their significant contribution to protecting nature and biodiversity. Biodiversity and cultural diversity are profoundly interlinked: TCEs preserve and sustain the TK that contributes to the world’s biodiversity. They embody the humans’ relationship with nature and the communities’ forms of expression towards each other. Still, the human rights of Indigenous people are often seen as a barrier to nature conservation, arguing that protecting nature means allowing it uninhabited and pushing for displacements, when in fact, they are part of the solution to safeguarding biocultural diversity. Even though less than 5% of the world’s population comprises Indigenous people, they protect 80% of our total biodiversity in the forests, deserts, grasslands and marine environments.

The perspective of safeguarding biocultural diversity through the creative process and design decisions is currently a major opportunity gap. The fashion industry is one of the largest product manufacturing industries in the world with unlimited design decision power that has the potential to positively impact the protection of TCEs and therefore nourish and respect the relationship between culture and biodiversity. Human rights for Indigenous people, ethnic groups and local communities also ensure the survival of Traditional Knowledge systems.

Monica’s core work is to rebalance the relationships between Indigenous people, ethnic groups, local communities, and society. This positions Indigenous and local knowledge as a central ingredient to preserve the planet’s biocultural diversity and nurtures collaborations that use TK and TCEs to find solutions for climate actions. The core of Monica’s strategy is the 3C RULE CONSENT. CREDIT. COMPENSATION™ framework which can be easily translated and understood by anyone around the world and has the potential to bridge connections for the benefit of the planet between actors. It comprises three baseline principles: Consent (Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the crafts or knowledge custodian, Indigenous or local community), Credit (acknowledgement of the source community and inspiration), and Compensation (monetary or non-monetary). She strategically started spreading the 3Cs Rule framework by creating the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) in 2018, which operates as a wide-ranging network of people—including crafters from three continents, fashion revolutionaries, designers, government, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)—focused on the progress of Cultural Intellectual Property broadly, and who are the cross-multipliers of the 3Cs frame change in their communities.

The power of the framework lies in its simplicity. Words like “cultural appropriation”, “plagiarism” or information about the misuse of TK don’t reach Indigenous people, ethnic groups and local communities because they use local, non-colonial languages and dialects and their form of organization and customs differ from those of the capitalistic world. The 3Cs Rule framework enables communities to collaborate meaningfully, using local biocultural diversity to find solutions for current global problems, and so marginalized identities like Indigenous women are given a chance for their voices to be heard beyond their communities and be taken into consideration when climate actions are taken.

A key aspect of Monica’s 3Cs Rule framework is that the TK and TCEs' custodians shape the relationships with external partners based on this framework. The community designs the form of protection that suits them best under their customary laws and practices, using traditional IP tools when relevant and helpful. This control by the community is important because too many efforts to protect cultural intellectual property have harvested information without sharing benefits or stored information in ways the community can’t access.

Monica and her team position themselves as a neutral player and prioritize the fashion and luxury industry as the inflexion point, leveraging the fact that sustainable clothing is on everyone’s radar. Monica works with Indigenous people, ethnic groups and local communities where situations of cultural misappropriation happen the most, such as Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, and establishes national and regional practices that could become models for other communities. The process is complex and requires local expertise covering ethnology and fine arts, ethnography, history, anthropology, economics, business management, and legal expertise for such a synergetic construction, as well as the hands-on type of research. Translated versions of the 3Cs Rule are used to explain in local and indigenous languages the rights and agency each community should have to protect their TK and TCEs and use to collaborate for the good of the planet. Local communities use the framework to have dialogues about new rules of engagement they want to have around their TK and TCEs. Based on what communities decide, Monica develops international partnerships on grassroots-led actionable tools that ensure local communities can exercise their right to self-determination in controlling the processes of legally protecting their TK, TCEs and the Intangible Cultural Heritage linked to them.

Importantly, the shape of legal protection emerges from the experience of communities themselves engaging in real efforts to protect their cultural intellectual property rather than sweeping laws and treaties created with or without their input that may or may not be effective in meeting their needs. 

In Laos, Monica worked with the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) to support the Oma People of Nanam Village in reconnecting with their TCEs, mapping them into a legally protected database (22 motifs, 43 textile items) and building the legal framework to secure their cultural intellectual property rights. Local community members were treated as knowledge partners. They were engaged in dialogues regarding the legal protection and promotion of their cultural heritage, explained to researchers the use and meanings of motifs, and had decision-making powers in relation to the database. With CIPRI’s assistance, the database turned into a regulated platform through which Oma People can grant access to their TCEs to third parties based on certain conditions. It was developed with the consultation and Free Prior Informed Consent of the community, which then also opted to sign an agreement with TAEC, empowering them to legally represent them in future cases of unauthorized use of their TCEs. The database, which they chose to copyright under traditional IP law, also serves as a way for the Oma People to initiate and engage in commercial discussions about using their designs in fair, compensated ways.

The Department of Intellectual Property welcomed the innovation and is using it as a basis for establishing a law for the protection of TK and TCEs in Laos. Doing so took leadership in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), in that one of its Intellectual Property Rights Action Plan 2019-2025 deliverables is the development of a network of genetic resources (GR) and TK databases for interested member states. Now acts of misappropriation can be taken to court.

The implications of these results are various. They created a sense of agency and self-determination in the Oma People, and it instilled a feeling of pride in being the first ethnic group in Laos to pilot this model and create something that would potentially help the whole craft sector and beyond. This newly gained agency pushed them to start re-growing cotton for use with their handcrafted TCEs. Neighboring Oma villages are adopting the 3Cs Rule for their designs too.

In their latest field research, in Chiapas, Mexico, Monica and her team and local allies translated the 3Cs Rule in two local languages, Tsotsil and Tseltal, and partnered with three local artisans’ organizations to connect with Indigenous women. Apart from examples of cultural misappropriation, consultations brought to the surface how the new Federal Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican People and Communities overlooked the perspective of Indigenous women; they had no means to voice their ideas about their rights and were heavily demotivated.

Malacate Taller Experimental Textil, a collective of women craft custodians in the Chiapas highlands, is the local flag bearer for the 3Cs Rule. The members have used the framework as they have re-defined cultural misappropriation from within their own reality, since concepts based on the conventional IP system, such as plagiarism and ownership, come from outside their communities. They have international acclaim for the quality of their intricate embroideries and their commitment to communicating their culture. However, for them, marketing and selling goals are secondary to respect for and protection of their livelihoods. They are defining the production and commercialization of their textiles on their own terms, which, in part, means that they establish their own production timeline when they engage with a buyer.

While the 3Cs Rule framework can be a protective approach to CIP rights, it is also a generative framework that enables communities to create new business opportunities. Another example is Monica’s work in India, where she helped design the Mahila Print platform and the rules of engagement with the Indigenous designs created by women artisans in Bagru and facilitated collaborations for artisans. Skilled block printers in the Bagru community have made their living since the 17th century by printing textiles with patterns they developed and produced with a network of farmers who grow plants for natural dyes, carvers, washers, and dyers. Fast fashion and machine design eroded their livelihoods, but through the interventions of Monica and Jeremy Fritzhand, the business partner, the local artisans have become entrepreneurs who own and use the 3Cs Rule in the way they present themselves to the world. The outcomes are protected and licensed for makers to use worldwide.
 
The women of Mahila Print have said that they didn’t know before that they possessed something that could be described and protected. Their incomes have become more stable; more women have enough income, from the royalties that are part of the 3Cs methodology, to take time for additional training to graduate from printing other people’s blocks to creating their own. The India workshop now embodies the idea of innovating from traditional designs in partnership with outside clients, which is embedded in Monica’s vision of future practice. She and Jeremy are now developing CIPRI’s ethical model for a larger-scale craft platform start-up called CloudSewn.  

To reach out to fashion and luxury companies, Monica offers workshops and the Cultural Sustainability Academy - The Knowledge Hub for Cultural Sustainability® as safe spaces for their decision-makers to realize the gravity of the systemic inequity sustained by their practices and internalize the framework and processes behind the 3Cs Rule. The annual 10-day-long Executive Program of the Cultural Sustainability Academy offers a more in-depth and personalized program for a limited number of high-level participants. In this immersive context, they share experiences and have open dialogues on difficult and cross-systemic topics engaging leaders in fields that converge in Monica’s work: sustainability, environment, community development, grassroots partners, business partners, craft, fashion, fashion reform, the press, academia, design, WIPO, and UNESCO.

Since December 2018, when Monica hosted the first workshop on Cultural Sustainability in Fashion at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, she has been continuously asked to host workshops, guest lectures, or courses at other educational institutions in Switzerland, India, Poland, Germany, and as part of the programs/platforms of ecosystem collaborators such as The Crafts Council Netherlands, European Fashion Heritage Association, and Fashion Revolution. All of Monica’s efforts are supported by strategic ambassadors in each region, like Bandana Tewari (global expert in Indigenous ‘made-by-hand’ economies and former Vogue India editor) and Nagaraja Prakasam (Indian angel investor and thought leader in the social impact space).

Monica anticipates applying the 3Cs Rule framework to medicinal plants, architecture, fragrance and beauty products, environmental stewardship and biodiversity conservation; the Bagru Mahila Print example includes indirect effects on tourism. Monica is in the early stages of working with groups in Romania and northeast India, where bio-conservation, local entrepreneurism, and culture converge. 

In Romania, Monica works with the Mila 23 Association, in the Danube Delta. The Danube Delta is a land of many waterways that has been settled since antiquity. They want to help local development by protecting the cultural and natural biodiversity of water areas and helping local entrepreneurial projects develop for the good of the communities they address. They are seeking tools to encourage critical thinking and collaboration and for public communication and thus reached out to Monica.

The United Nations included biocultural diversity in the agenda for the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15). Out of over 700 commitment pledges for the Action Agenda from non-state actors, Monica’s was the one that stood out the most. This made the United Nations highlight her 3Cs Rule-infused pledge even more and propelled her into the experts’ group, which meets and discusses the Action Agenda for Nature and People. The United Nations sees Monica as the entrepreneurial neutral person who can lead the transformational changes needed in the field.

Due to her cross-systemic work and knowledge at the convergence of biological and cultural diversity, Monica was granted permission by the Indigenous People and Local Communities’ caucus and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) to attend their daily morning meetings at COP15. Now, with the adoption of The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Monica is best placed to use the 3Cs Rule in creating more bridges between cultural diversity and biodiversity, between the world of Indigenous people, ethnic groups and local communities and the industrialized world, between Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expressions and the climate problems we face. Her target is to use the 3Cs Rule in establishing strategic bottom-up models in 100 communities worldwide by 2030.

Monica is recognized as a leader at the international level, in multiple arenas. CHANEL selected her as one of 15 delegates they supported to participate in the One Young World Summit 2019, with a scholarship intended for “young leaders at the forefront of organizations and movements that make a difference. She has been an advisor to WIPO on the Fashion and Indigenous People project, where she introduced Indigenous people and ethnic groups from her network. They were then invited to be part of WIPO’s High-Level Dialogue on Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Cultural Expressions and Fashion, the first time that members of the communities behind the much-discussed TK and TCEs were actually in the conversation. The Dialogue included a draft of the next steps, which now reflect the 3Cs Rule. This outcome is informed by her two expert reports commissioned by WIPO and comes more than five years after Monica presented the 3Cs Rule Framework in her TEDx Talk in December 2017.

Monica’s dedication to law, Traditional Knowledge, and cultures stems from her experiences as a child. While her maternal grandmother was a lawyer and inspired Monica to become one, she got her connection with Romanian Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions from her paternal grandmother. She spent time with her relatives, in the countryside, being immersed in the local customs and traditions and discovering the value of handcrafted textiles and other very treasured belongings kept for decades. Growing up, Monica was an outspoken child, curious, exploring all opportunities around her, from writing poetry and participating in educational competitions and artistic events to being a member of various student bodies in high school, being an accredited football referee and volunteering in a church choir. What nourished her and helped her grow as a thinker, a visionary leader and a human being was her involvement as a volunteer for 11 years with the European Youth Parliament.
 
She went on to study law in Bucharest, with a dual degree in French law and international learning experience in the United States of America. Whilst in her last year of university, she organized a vintage fair under the trademark ReaDress®. The concept was to acknowledge the stories of the garments people buy and wear and write these stories for each garment sold. She realized how people buy many garments without a purpose, without a personal story, and how difficult it is to part ways with a garment which a person has a strong emotional connection with. She organized another two editions and with the money obtained, she was able to pay the registration fees for the trademark and, like this, officially start her career in Intellectual Property Law. On the journey with ReaDress, she became more and more interested in Fashion Law and the phenomenon of cultural misappropriation. At this point, she felt that the great law firm she was working for was no longer a space for professional growth and personal fulfillment. This was a turning point when she went back to her roots, to her grandparents, and revisited the family’s traditional heirlooms to find the answers for the next stage in her life. She soon realized her calling was to bridge the worlds of law and cultural heritage.
 
While preparing to pursue a PhD in Law in the US, the idea of Cultural Intellectual Property was born and was first mentioned in her research proposal. As part of her research and validation process in preparing the PhD application, she reached out to the creator of the Facebook page La Blouse Roumaine, proposing to her to start an initiative in Romania for a Law which would protect Traditional Cultural Expressions (including, among others, the Romanian Blouse). For the next two years, she worked as a volunteer for La Blouse Roumaine and was one of the founding members of the La Blouse Roumaine Association. She drafted a bill proposal to recognize 24 June as the national celebration day for the Romanian Blouse (Ziua IEI), but it was never passed. Due to differences in vision and leadership styles, Monica ended her collaboration with La Blouse Roumaine and got herself a one-way ticket to Berlin, to start a new stage of her life and craft the path for the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative®. It was during this period of internal and external searches that Monica was inspired by the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to develop the 3Cs Rule which was officially presented for the first time during a TEDx Talk on “Cultural Fashion: Transform the Fashion Industry From Villain to Hero” in December 2017.