The WIPO-administered Marrakesh Treaty makes the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or visual impairments easier. It does this by establishing a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law.
The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, and entered into force on September 30, 2016.
Contact us
This year, we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Marrakesh Treaty's adoption, a significant milestone in enhancing access to published works for people who are blind and visually impaired. We acknowledge the progress the members made in implementing the Marrakesh Treaty over the past decade, and look forward to continuing to improve lives of those in need of accessible publishing, everywhere.
Watch a quick overview of the history of Marrakesh Treaty and the importance of its adoption for over 285 million blind or visually impaired people in the world.
All WIPO member states are eligible to become party to the Marrakesh Treaty. To become a member, a state must deposit an "instrument" declaring its intention with the Director General of WIPO. This instrument must be signed by the Head of State, the Head of Government or the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
As part of its mission, WIPO is always ready to respond to member state requests for review of national legislation in light of treaty provisions.
Contact us to find out more.
Video: Stevie Wonder speaks about the Marrakesh Treaty at the UN (December 2016).
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) aims to increase the number of books worldwide in accessible formats (braille, audio and large print) and to make them available to people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.
ABC involves advocacy organizations, authors, libraries for the blind, publishers and standards bodies.
Both governmental and non-governmental organizations play an important role in providing persons who are blind or visually impaired with access to alternative format materials. In recognition of their role, the Marrakesh Treaty sets up some exceptions to copyright that allow such organizations to better serve their beneficiaries.
The Marrakesh Treaty itself does not require an organization to fulfill any formalities or undertake specific procedures to be recognized as an "authorized entity". However, it also does not limit such measures, meaning that states can decide for themselves.
Organizations wishing to become authorized entities should therefore refer to the applicable national laws, some of which can be found in the results to the questionnaire on cross-border accessibility.
We send a questionnaire to each Marrakesh Treaty Contracting Party to better understand how they are implementing the Treaty and enabling the cross-border exchange of printed works. The following results are available so far:
(in Spanish) (in Spanish) (in Spanish)(in French) (in Spanish) (in Spanish) (in French)
![Bringing Books to Visually Impaired People in India [Version for a Visually Impaired Audience]](https://www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org/documents/102554/102067/wipo_nidhi-player_600.jpg)
