The World Blind Union Guide to the Marrakesh Treaty

Web accessibility and technology protection measures: Harmonizing the rights of persons with cognitive disabilities and copyright protections on the web

“…As a legal matter, it references the CRPD in its Preamble, providing a basis for drawing on the CRPD as a source of authority in interpreting and implementing the provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty (Helfer et al 2017). As a practical matter, many of the States that ratify the Marrakesh Treaty will also be parties to the CRPD, and will want to reconcile their obligations under these treaties.…”

“…Finally, States may also find it efficient to rely on the capacity and expertise of established institutions charged with responsibility for human rights matters, such as national human rights institutions, in implementing and interpreting the treaty. In these ways, the Marrakesh Treaty provides a basis for involving domestic policy actors and persons with disabilities in discussions around web accessibility and TPMs (Helfer et al 2017) To ensure consistency among their international commitments and to achieve the objectives of the Marrakesh Treaty, States that ratify that treaty will have an obligation to consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the design and implementation of those policies. The policies that result will more likely reflect their interests and needs and thus approximate a balance of the obligations of copyright and accessibility.…”

“…The result was the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Words for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, which came into force on September 30, 2016 with the thirtieth ratification of the treaty. The treaty uses the legal and policy tools of copyright to achieve its human rights goals of enabling printdisabled individuals to access books and other cultural materials (Helfer, Land, Okediji, & Reichman, 2017). …”

“…Although exceptions and limitations for the blind are among the most longstanding national exceptions to copyright around the world, many countries nonetheless lacked such exceptions, and there was considerable variation among those that did have these provisions in national law (Helfer et al, 2017;Kaminski & Yanisky-Ravid, 2013). Moreover, because of the territoriality of copyright, it was not possible for accessible format copies created in one jurisdiction to be shared with print-disabled individuals in other jurisdictions (Helfer et al, 2017;Kaminski & Yanisky-Ravid, 2013). The Marrakesh Treaty thus is aimed at harmonizing exceptions across national jurisdictions including exceptions that permit the export of accessible format copies.…”

The Marrakesh Treaty as “Bottom Up” Lawmaking: Supporting Local Human Rights Action on IP Policies

“…191 The Treaty employs the legal and policy tools of copyright law to advance human rights ends. 192 It requires states to create mandatory exceptions to copyright to allow individuals with print disabilities to make accessible format copies of books and other cultural materials and share them across borders. 193 The current global "book famine"-the fact that only between one and seven percent of books are available in accessible formats to individuals with print disabilities 194 -is directly attributable to copyright laws.…”