DEAR Editor,-
The SAR2R Coalition and affiliated member organisations calls upon the NCOP and national assembly to enact the copyright bill and ratify the Marrakesh Treaty for access to published works in accessible format such as braille or audio, for the blind and visually impaired.
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The current copyright act does not provide exceptions and limitations for this.
NGO’s affiliated to the SAR2R Coalition have over decades produced accessible formatted materials from charitable and development funds.
In conjunction with the World Blind Union (WBU), member organisations and African Union of the Blind (AFUB) successfully negotiated with state parties at World Intellectual Property and Related Rights Organisation (WIPO) for an international treaty.
In June 2013, the Marrakesh Treaty was adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco.
It is now in force in over 52 countries across the globe, including 11 African ratified countries and 28 member countries from the European Union (EU) with automatic ratification.
South Africa led the disability rights movement internationally and the creation of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD), as well as the African Protocol on Disability, but unfortunately has not ratified the treaty yet.
The treaty promotes the production by rights-holders of published works in an accessible format on the same day, at the same price.
It also provides for cross-border exchange and production for non-profit use by authorised entities like NGO’s (without copyright infringement) should rights-holders not make accessible formatted published works available.
Provision of the Marrakesh Treaty is now incorporated in Section 19 D of the Copyright Bill (serving at the NCOP) and approved at national assembly in November 2018.
The enactment of the copyright bill and ratification of the treaty will immediately provide over half a million accessible book titles to blind, visually impaired and print-disabled South Africans.
This will open greater access to information and knowledge and has the potential to improve the economic, cultural and social well-being of this marginalised sector of the population, whilst bringing the SA ‘book famine’ to an end.
For more information, email the author at ceo@blindsa.org.za.
JACE NAIR
CEO, Blind SA
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