2 April 2013

Dear Sir/Madam

WIPO Treaty for Visually Impaired Persons and Article A1

I am writing to you in my capacity as President of the African Union of the Blind (AFUB), also as a blind individual, about negotiations to conclude an international treaty to help blind people get greater access to reading.

I know from personal and professional experience just how devastating it is to be excluded from the world of reading. This is a daily occurrence for blind and partially sighted and other "print disabled" people. We face a "book famine" because in most countries, only some 1% of books are ever made available in formats that blind people can read, such as audio, large print or Braille. (In the richest still only some 5% are available in these formats.)

I am writing to you now because we have reached a vital moment in the campaign for an international treaty at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to remove the copyright barriers that help to create this "book famine".

WIPO negotiators, including those representing the AU, will meet again on April 18-20, and it is expected that treaty negotiations will be concluded at the end of June this year.

To come straight to the point, I would like to ask for your reassurance on two vital areas of the draft treaty text which will be under negotiation in the next two months. We hear that the EU negotiators are looking:

  • to require, as a condition of using the treaty, charities to carry out checks[1] to supposedly ensure an accessible book is not already "commercially available" in another country in the right format, price and at the same time as the print version

AFUB rejects proposals for treaty Articles D and E of the treaty to contain requirements to check "commercial availability as a prerequisite

of using thetreaty. They would be burdensome and impossible to implement, especially for developing countries.

  • to prevent charities from sending accessible format books to blind individuals[2] in other countries

AFUB urges you to ensure that treaty Article D clearly allows accessible format books to be sent internationally and directly to blind/ print disabled individuals.

At this crucial juncture, AFUB urges you to negotiate a treaty that is simple and workable for blind people and their organisations.

A bureaucratically burdensome treaty would do nothing to help end our book famine or meet the commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

A simple, workable treaty would open a new chapter for the inclusion of blind and print disabled people in our society.

We are delighted with the African Group's support in Geneva, which we appreciate greatly. We're nearly there and think it is most appropriate, given the strong African support we have received, that the treaty should be concluded in Africa. AFUB urges you, as African negotiators, to negotiate hard to ensure that we not only have a landmark treaty agreed on African soil, but that it is a treaty which is worded so we can use it effectively to help end the book famine.

Yours sincerely

Jace Nair

President

African Union of the Blind

National Executive Director

SA National Council for the Blind