Consultation Meeting on Marrakesh Treaty Accession and Way Forward – Visually Impaired People's Society (VIPS)

On 28th March 2023, Tuesday VIPS has organized a consultation meeting on the Marrakesh Treaty Accession and way forward with different stakeholders, including visually impaired students and VIPS members. In the consultation meeting, special guest Daud Miah, Registrar of Copyrights, Bangladesh Copyright Office, was representing the special guest along with other, Mr. K M Khalid, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, due to his unavoidable circumstances related absence. Among others, Md. Monsur Ahmed Chowdhury, Founder Trustee, Impact Foundation; Najrana Yeasmin Hira, Programme Coordinator, Manusher Jonnu Foundation (MJF); Ayon Debnath, Campaign Lead, Sightsavers Bangladesh, Md. Saidul Huq, Executive Director of Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO), and Khandaker Jahurul Alam, Executive Director of the Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID), were present as distinguished guests. Also represented are the Disabled Child Foundation, Friendship, Copyright Office, Society of the Deaf & Sign Language Users (SDSL), CSID, BERDO, Disabled Welfare Society (DWS), Impact Foundation, Bangladesh Society for the Change and Advocacy Nexus (B-SCAN), Institute of Wellbeing Bangladesh, etc. And teachers from special schools, visually impaired students from the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind, Bangladesh Disabled, and Development Trust, including members of VIPS and staff, total 151 (F-62,M-89) people present at that consultation meeting. Where discussion took place about Marrakesh Treaty accession and its way forward in relation to different issues, Daud Miah, Registrar of Copyrights, Bangladesh Copyright Office, who attended the event as the special guest, stated that the Marrakesh Treaty will soon be implemented in the Copyright Act of Bangladesh; he also said that none would be left behind in our effort to make Smart Bangladesh. At the program, VIPS also gave a reception to Md. Saidul Huq, Executive Director of Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO), for receiving ‘Ekushey Padak 2023’ for his contribution to social work. In this consultation meeting, a mass signature program was conducted under the slogan wanting the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty in Bangladesh, in which 110 participants signed.

The consultation meeting was streamed live from VIPS Facebook page to about 1500 Facebook users. BTV telecast about this program on that day’s evening news, and there were also six online and daily newspapers that covered the event, with links provided below:

The Country Today

https://dailycountrytodaybd.com/story/access-to-education,-employment-facilities-for-people-with-visual-impairment-demanded