The World Blind Union was formed in 1984 through the Union of the International Federation of the Blind (IFB) and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB). The first General Assembly, the Founding Assembly of WBU, was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 October 1984. Since then, another six subsequent General Assemblies took place every four years in Madrid 1988, Cairo 1992, Toronto 1996, Melbourne 2000, Cape Town 2004, and Geneva 2008.
The WBU is divided into six regions: Europe, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, and Asia Pacific. At its beginning 60 countries were registered as WBU members, but the number rose to approximately 190 during the following 25 years. The use of three world languages--English, French, and Spanish--were adopted facilitating an efficient global communication among all members. Strengthening the activities of its six regional unions, WBU quickly became a powerful internationally recognized voice in the worldwide disability movement.
Through the leadership of the WBU and its constitution, one of its achievements has been to provide a forum where blind and partially sighted persons established the right to speak for themselves. Eliminating prejudice, promoting belief in the proven abilities of visually impaired people, as well as achieving full participation and equality in society, involves three of the main issues of WBU’s goals and objectives.
WBU Achievements
Since it was founded 1984, the WBU has made significant progress towards its objectives in all its areas of work. Among others, outstanding achievements are:
· Establishment of the Institutional Development Program (IDP). With the support of Sight Savers International and the Hilton/Perkins Program in the USA, the program continues to undertake leadership training and organizational development work in many countries, particularly throughout Africa;
· Organization of world forums on such issues as rehabilitation (Thailand, 1994), literacy (Uruguay, 1996) and human rights (Uruguay, 1998), as well as for blind and low vision women in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 and a children’s congress (Spain 2008);
· Retention of free post system for the blind. Had it not been for WBU intervention before the Universal Postal Union, this benefit would almost certainly have been withdrawn;
· Abolition of laser weapons as weapons of war, through the intervention of our human rights committee which was able to bring forward evidence of vision loss caused by laser weapons;
· Participation by WBU representatives in the drafting of a declaration including the aspirations and concerns of people with disabilities at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS);
· Instrumental in the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) initiative to set up the Vision2020 program, which is currently operating in many countries as well as globally and has already led to a reduction in avoidable blindness in the most vulnerable parts of the world;
· A key contributor to the development and monitoring of the Standard Rules for Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disability;
· As an international non-governmental organization (INGO), the WBU was a key contributor to the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lobbying for many articles to include protection for people who are blind or have low vision;
· Capacity building, and in particular supporting the development of well structured and strongly functioning organizations of the blind and low vision– bearing in mind at all times that "only blind and low vision persons can speak for blind and low vision persons”
· A voice in many areas of life as they affect people who are blind or low vision. The work undertaken by committees in many fields such as employment, human rights, literacy, education and women are examples of how these have been reflected;
· Special groupings that deal with pertinent issues that arise from time to time – services for the elderly (best practice), indigenous persons and sport and recreation (links with the International Blind Sports Federation - IBSA) are just three examples;
· A partner in the Education for All Visually Impaired Children (EFA-VI) Campaign in partnership with the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI);
· An arbiter of standards, for example in braille, technologies and international travel;
· Provider of scholarships through the WBU Hermoine Grant Calhoun and Pedro Zurita programs;
· Working with UNICEF to ensure that the needs of blind and low vision children are addressed within their programs and through the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
· Undertaking leadership development programs for blind and low vision women at regional and national level to ensure they enjoy the opportunity for growth, self-determination and involvement in the organization that represents them at all levels. This has included policy and constitutional changes to ensure gender equity within the WBU organization itself;
· Urging developers of technology and everyday household goods to include requirements for people who are blind or have low vision at the design stage rather than looking to adapt what is already available;
· Physically support the maintenance and preservation of the Louis Braille Museum and activities to lobby the French Government and UNESCO to declare the birthplace a world heritage site;
· Gaining UNESCO recognition of braille as an official language in its own right;
· In partnership with the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and other international partners, advocating with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure that accessible format books can be shared among countries, thus providing improved access to information for people who are blind or low vision.