Thursday, Morning Session
24 November 2011
The first day of dedicated discussions on a Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons got underway at 12:10 PM on Thursday, 24 November 2011. The Chair, Manuel Guerra Zamarro (Director General, Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor, INDAUTOR, Secretaría de Educación Pública, México D.F) opened discussion of his document, “Proposal on an international instrument on limitations and exceptions for persons with print disabilities” as the basis of discussions. Algeria speaking on behalf of the Development Agenda Group (Algeria, Brazil, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uruguay, and Yemen) stated that a legal instrument concluded at WIPO should enable countries to have national legislation on limitations and exceptions to facilitate access to protected works while providing cross border exchange in accessible formats. The spokeswoman for the Development Agenda Group stressed that copyright should not serve as an obstacle for disabled persons’ access to cultural works.
Brazil underscored its view that an agreement on the content and the nature of an instrument to solve the problems of persons with reading disabilities in accessing protected works was within reach at SCCR 23. Brazil requested the Chair to reserve time during the SCCR for discussion on the nature of instrument, a point supported by Chile, Pakistan and South Africa.
South Africa exhorted the WIPO membership to raise its level of ambition to conclude an international, legally binding instrument at SCCR 23. Mexico reiterated its support for the Treaty proposal co-sponsored with Brazll, Ecuador and Paraguay, emphasizing the human rights dimension and supporting the Chair’s text (22/16) as a basis for negotiations.
The representative of Pakistan stated, “we need to have an internationally binding legal instrument and therefore during this session, while we are having the substantive discussion, at some point we need to have a discussion on the nature of the instrument so that we incorporate those changes in the text”.
Argentina reiterated its role as a co-sponsor of the TVI and noted that it considered of paramount importance that the Chair establish a time frame for discussion on the Treaty including sufficient consideration of the nature of the instrument. Argentina noted that the negotiations on the TVI provided a test of the seriousness of WIPO member states’ commitments to the principles of the WIPO Development Agenda.
The United States of America stated that it was “open to whatever approach best moves forward our discussion”.