The Plenary Session of Wednesday, 22 July 2020, voted on the Law authorizing the accession of Rwanda to the Marrakesh Treaty to enable access to written works for individuals with visual impairment or with disabilities.
The Treaty was signed in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 27 June 2013.
Published works include literary and artistic works in the form of text, notation and/or related illustrations, whether written or otherwise made publicly available in any format.
The Treaty was enforced on 30 June 2016.
Substantiating the value of the bill, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, Minister of Trade and Industry, told legislators that she plans to make Rwanda one of the parties to the Marrakesh Treaty.
“There is a shortage of published works which have features enabling people who are visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled to read them,” she said.
For that problem to be solved, she said, this agreement provides for ways by which people with visual impairment, their representatives, caring families, education and training centres can access required published works without prior permission by the authors among countries adhered to the agreement.
The Treaty specifies, inter alia, that authorized entities can, without the permission of the copyright holder, make an accessible copy of the work, obtain an accessible copy of the work from another authorized entity, and provide such copies to the beneficiary through any means, including by non-commercial lending or electronic communication through cable system.
Accessible formats can include audio works, such as audiobooks, larger characters, or braille.
Normally, the Minister said the right to reproduce, disseminate or market a given work is for the author or any entity granted the authorisation to do so.
“Once Rwanda is one of the parties to this treaty, we expect benefits related to advancing education especially for the blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print-disabled people whereby the issue of lack of books and published works will be addressed, increasing opportunities in the lives of people whereby people with visual disabilities could get facilitated to access information,” she said.
She added that Rwanda will receive copies of works from the Member States of the Treaty, continue to enforce the principles of human rights law, and support the economy and develop their welfare.
Minister Hakuziyaremye said that 69 countries have fulfilled the requirements set out in the Agreement. Other countries include Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the East African Community.
She said that some of the sponsors argued that there were works that could not reach Rwanda until they joined the Treaty.
MP Damien Nyabyenda said that when the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, ICT, Culture and Youth carried out school evaluation tours [in February 2020], it found that some students had not received the required academic materials to respond to their disabilities.
“I realise that this bill is approved, people with visual impairment can have access to tools that help them in reading and following lessons,” he said.
MP Pierre-Claver Rwaka said that the treaty is an opportunity for people with vision disabilities in particular.
