> SOUTH AFRICA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the outset, South Africa supports the statement made by Nigeria on behalf of the Africa Group. 2015 was a milestone in the global calendar. We adopted agenda 2030, which outlined 17 goals which are meant to promote sustainable development, spur economic growth and create a better life for all. This was followed by the Onga high level review which affirmed the world Information Society in creating an Information Society and a knowledge economy. We called for a close alignment between WSIS and STGs. The convergence of new technologies allows for broader reach as books and resources move online. However, this benefit can only produce tangible results if access to content is facilitated in a clear and hassle-free manner. Burdensome Copyright restrictions can hinder such access and internal delay development. As the world increasingly moves to distance learning and e-education, it is here that libraries, as custodians of knowledge, play a critical role in facilitating and improving access to knowledge. They have an important role in providing access to rich, scientific and cultural knowledge that is the common heritage of human creativity across the ages.Mr. Chairman, access to knowledge and information is fundamental to the promotion of education and human development. The statute recognized this critical need and proposed that works are available for education. Copyright also takes into consideration access to knowledge and makes provisions for exceptions as evidenced by the study presented by Professor yesterday. As previously indicated, the digital ecosystem is growing and producing knowledge that could be considered orphan works. It’s very important that we create appropriate exceptions that opens this vast and overflowing fountain of knowledge. Like the digital world, knowledge has no borders. And access to knowledge to libraries and archives have to be global. It is here that we have a responsibility to promote cross-border use to facilitate equitable access to global knowledge from Ivy schools in the north to dusty village schools in the south. We all have a responsibility to address outdated Copyright restrictions so that each person has an equal opportunity to an education that can change his or her own life and achieve the global agenda of leaving no one behind.
Mr. Chairman, Africa has acknowledged that it needs to take charge of its transformational journey by empowering its universities to respond to new and emerging challenges and provide access to new technologies as in the — last year when Africa leaders met about access to information in their bid to develop an inclusive society and knowledge economy, however we cannot achieve this goal alone. We need international collaboration as espoused by agenda 2030. It is here that the SCCR can play a critical role in responsive dialogue that can lead us to address the challenges in the imbalance in Copyright system impeding full and access to knowledge in a globalised world. Success will take us one step closer to sustainable development placing us firmly on the road to 2030.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, we’d also like to add our support to hold regional meetings on exceptions and limitations, thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you very much for this comprehensive statement. Very interesting, indeed.
Egypt
>> EGYPT: Thank you, Mr. Chairperson and good morning, everybody. My delegation first would like to align itself with the intervention made by the Distinguished Delegation of Nigeria on behalf of the African Group on this Agenda Item.And allow me to make the following comments. Let’s not forget that we have a wider context here of work within WIPO; namely, the Development Agenda, where we have specific items relating to limitations and exceptions and access to knowledge and bridging the digital gap and this is very relevant to our work in this committee, which is one of the committees that are entitled to do norm-setting activity within the organisation on Copyright issues. So there is an importance of moving forward on the normative aspect to set the tone for ways and means that enable libraries and archives to fulfill their obligations and role in ensuring access to knowledge and dissemination of that knowledge.
The absence of minimum standards of international exceptions and limitations will only render those institutions which are the creators of knowledge vulnerable to lateral or purely lateral negotiations sometimes with a very high ceiling of protection or at exorbitant costs that are counterproductive to efforts aimed at disseminating knowledge and making it available within a wider context of Sustainable Development Goals as well as efforts at raising the standards of education and knowledge in different areas in each country. So limiting ourselves to national laws and legislation regulating such issues is not enough and can be limiting to our greater goal as Member States of the United Nations, thank you.
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Nigeria has the floor.
>> NIGERIA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Mr. Chairman, our delegation supports and aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the Africa Group on this Agenda Item. Mr. Chairman, we believe that libraries and archives occupy a position in the context providing access to global knowledge, cultural and scientific information. Access to this information and resources is no longer hampered by physical boundaries in view of the
impact of emerging technologies, but there are obvious legal constraints, especially in terms of Copyright. These challenges are manifested in difficulties libraries and archives face in gaining access to and providing good faith dissemination of these resources in line with their primary mandates.Mr. Chairman, our delegation supports the view expressed by other delegates that the challenges of libraries and archives will be significantly alleviated through an international instrument that continues to promote a fair balance between the rights of Copyright holders and users of Copyright works to compliment existing international instruments.
A call for the adoption of such an instrument does not necessarily preclude sharing of national experiences or discussions on principles and concepts but believes that the sharing of national experiences will enrich the discussion towards the convergence of views on the necessary components of a possible instrument.
Mr. Chairman, we therefore continue to support ongoing discussions of identified clusters of issues and hope that this will accelerate the move towards text-based work in future sessions of this committee.
We also support consideration of a consolidated text prepared by the African Group, Brazil, Ecuador and India and Uruguay. The Delegation of Nigeria remains committed to engaging in good faith to work with the Chair and all members to advance the work of this committee in respect to this Agenda Item. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHILE
>> CHILE: Thank you, Chairman. Our country’s been following carefully the discussions on this item on the agenda, and we should try to find consensus on each and every one of the issues. We continue to be interested in finding an international solution to the problem, providing that this gives concrete solutions to exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives.As we’ve said at previous sessions of the committee, we strongly believe that the basic aim of Intellectual Property and its development should be to find a balance between rights and obligations and access to culture, which is possible to achieve thanks to tools such as these limitations and exceptions. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you very much, Chile, for your statement.
Brazil has the floor now.
>> BRAZIL: Thank you, Chair, for giving me the floor. Very briefly I’d just like to associate the position of our delegation should statements made by the African Group, the GRULAC and the Asia Pacific group as well as the other statements delivered stating the importance of the subjects for development for access to education. We are very much interested in debating every and each one of the topics that are proposed by you, Chair. Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you very much, the Distinguished Delegate from Brazil for his invitation to discuss these topics and for his clear statement remarking the importance of the topic we are discussing.
And we are ready to continue the discussion or structured discussion on the list of topics. And I will not give in this moment the floor to NGOs because we are interested in having their important inputs related to the specific topics that we are going to discuss immediately. And I invite you — invite NGOs to be prepared for giving us some inputs from the topics that we are going to discuss. And we intend to discuss during this session, during this part of the agenda which part of the importations, cross-border issues and or fan works, retracted and withdrawn works and works out of commerce. Please be ready for this because we are very interested in listening to your specific contributions that will help us to discuss the elements that could be considered as some
objectives and principles to consider related to those topics, the concerns that are that have to be considered when we undertake such effort. And some was to tackle those concerns.