Reflections on the first 25 years of the World Blind Union
Edited by Sir John Wall
A "Multimedia" book
Produced on behalf of the World Blind Union (WBU) by RNIB, 105 Judd Street, London WC1H 9NE
Copyright The World Blind Union 2008
Multimedia book ISBN-13 9781858788432
(The front cover displays a striking black and white image of an eye across the page in between the title/subtitle and the World Blind Union logo with a colour image of a globe/earth in the iris of the eye.)
(Photo of Sir John Wall)
Edited by Sir John Wall, President of the European Blind Union (1996-2003) and Vice President of the Royal National Institute of Blind People
Representing 180 million blind and partially sighted people across the globe, the World Blind Union (WBU) is a significant leader and shaper of the worldwide disability movement. "Changing what it means to be blind" is a celebration of WBU's silver jubilee in 2009 and a fascinating insight into the organisation's first 25 years, exploring how it has fulfilled its founders' dreams of firmly establishing blindness and disability rights as global issues.
This book reflects the differing styles of six men and one woman who have led WBU through these first 25 years, united in the aim of improving the lives of blind and partially sighted people throughout the world. These memoirs of the six presidents, and of the long-serving secretary-general, give the reader a flavour of the workings of an important disability non-governmental organisation.
WBU has a bright future and is actively working towards creating a world where being blind means being whatever you choose it to be.
This is a multimedia book. Inside is a CD Rom with the book in audio (DAISY format), Braille, Clear Print PDF and text files all-in-one.
(RNIB logo)
Produced by RNIB on behalf of the World Blind Union (WBU) www.worldblindunion.org
Changing what it means to be blind is a multimedia book accessible to everyone. The clear print book is accompanied by a CD Rom enclosed at the back of the book which includes DAISY audio, Braille, PDF and text files all-in-one. (Also see the end of the book for further information about all the formats, instructions on how to make the most from the CD Rom.)
RNIB would like to thank Dolphin Computer Access for providing free copies of Tied-EasyReader for the multimedia CD enclosed with this book. Tied-EasyReader means that you can experience the DAISY content on the multimedia CD, even if you do not own your own DAISY playing software. Visit www.YourDolphin.com/EasyReader for more information.
Further copies of this book can be purchased from www.rnib.org.uk/shop or by contacting RNIB Customer Services, PO Box 173, Peterborough PE2 6WS Telephone 0845 702 3153 Email cservices@rnib.org.uk. Overseas customers - please contact RNIB Exports on Telephone +44 1733 37 54 00 Email exports@rnib.org.uk
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
In May 2007, I accepted an invitation from Dr William Rowland, President of the World Blind Union, to be editor in chief of this book. The task involved asking the Presidents of WBU to write a memoir, recounting what happened during their presidency – as well as asking the long-serving Secretary General, Pedro Zurita, to provide his own memoir.
It was clear that it would be necessary to describe how WBU came into being, which I did within the first two chapters and the endnotes, and to include links between the memoirs. To do this, I needed research assistance. Pedro was very helpful, supplying me with the proceedings of the Riyadh General Assembly, and allowing me to include his account of the founding of the African Union of the Blind. Penny Hartin also helped me enormously.
My principal research assistant was Carol Bird, formerly International Secretary of RNIB. She is a living database of information about WBU and its predecessors. More than that, she spent many hours looking through RNIB's archives, answering a myriad of questions I was asking. Finally, she proofread all the text of the book – over 30,000 words – a Herculean task, for which I am hugely grateful.
I should also like to thank Dr Rowland, who also read the texts, and gave me moral support which made my task both easier than it might have been and immensely enjoyable.
John Wall, April 2008
The founding of the World Blind Union some twenty-five years ago was an act of courage and imagination. The merger of the International Federation of the Blind, with its inherent activism, and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, based on a tradition of service provision, meant that in future blind and partially sighted people worldwide would speak with one united voice and demonstrate a unity of purpose.
As one who has attended all of the WBU general assemblies and followed the periodic reporting of the organization over many years, I have been privileged to witness the phenomenal growth of the WBU and the unique contribution of each of our Presidents – the flamboyance and globe-trotting of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ghanim, the wisdom and experience of Duncan Watson, the workmanlike approach of David Blyth, the generosity of spirit of Euclid Herie, and Kicki Nordström, the people's president. This is not to forget our long-time and greatly talented Secretary General, Pedro Zurita. And to this list many others could certainly be added.
Reading the memoirs of our leaders has therefore been a trip down memory lane, but equally a gratifying confirmation of what has been achieved through the hard work and determination of the collective that is the WBU.
For me, being able to lead the WBU at a time of internal renewal and during the international negotiations that have produced the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has been immensely exciting and deeply rewarding. We have, I believe, laid a firm foundation on which others will build as the WBU continues to go from strength to strength.
William Rowland, May 2008
(Image of Earth Globe and Magnifying glass)
Tradition has it that the Greek poet Homer was blind. What is more certain is that there have been many notable blind individuals from the time of Homer up until the eighteenth century. During this period, however, agencies for the blind were slow to develop. When formed, they were generally local in character, though some became national. Among the general population there was very little international travel or communication, so that it was not surprising that national agencies created to look after the blind tended to be isolated.
In 1784, Valentin Hauy founded what was to become L'Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (L'INJA) in Paris. This proved to be a major landmark in what may be called "the history of the blind". Thirty-five or so years later, a blind country lad Louis Braille – a pupil and then teacher at L'INJA – invented the system of reading and writing which bears his name. The gradual spread of the use of Braille, first in Europe, and eventually all over the globe, might be regarded as the first international activity of or for the blind.
In 1804, Dr Klein laid the foundation stone of a school for the blind in Vienna. Bundes Blindenerziehungsinstitut celebrated its bicentennial in 2004!
In 1868, a group of blind people in England, led by Thomas Rhodes Armitage, set up what is now the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
The first recorded instance of an international exchange of knowledge and experience occurred in 1873, when a conference was held in Vienna. It was followed by several other meetings, attended by teachers and representatives of organizations working for the blind.
The war was another landmark in the history of the blind. First and foremost, many thousands of young men were blinded while fighting for their country. Blindness was much more prevalent when hostilities ended than it had been in 1914. In England, there were calls to create a world fit for heroes to live in. Foreign travel, particularly within Europe, was no longer a privilege of the aristocracy. Blind organizations and the blind people they represented and served felt that lessons could be learned from other countries.
It has been said, perhaps controversially, that no one aware of the actual circumstances would deny that the most earnest and persistent internationalist movement of blind people prior to World War II was the blind Esperantist movement. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a Polish eye doctor, Lazar Ludovik Zamenhof, decided to make more than just a token contribution to solving the problem of communication among people who speak different languages. He devised Esperanto, which he proposed as an auxiliary international language.
In 1923, in Nuremberg, Germany, blind Esperantists founded the Universal Association of Blind Esperantists (UABE), which, from the outset, harboured the desire to bring all the national organizations of and for the blind together in a single body. Although UABE and its magazine, Esperanta Ligilo, were deeply involved in promoting the use of Esperanto, matters of particular interest to the blind community were always given special priority.
At a conference held in New York in 1931, a desire was expressed for a permanent international organization which would maintain liaison among all those who were working in the field of blind welfare. The economic depression, followed by World War II from 1939 to 1945, however, delayed progress. It was not until a conference was held in Oxford in 1949 that an international committee was elected, charged with the task of exploring the possibilities for the creation of a world organization.
In 1951, in Paris, a draft constitution for an international organization was adopted, bringing into being the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB). This new body mainly brought together representatives of organizations providing services for the blind.
In 1940, in the USA, Jacobus Tenbroek had founded the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). In the years that followed, associations of blind people were established in many countries of the world.
These initiatives highlighted a division which was to affect international activity until the mid-1980s.
The agencies which had been formed to provide services "for" the blind were sometimes set up, managed and staffed by blind people. More often their governing bodies, management and staff were sighted people. Latterly, these have been called "for" organizations.
In the USA, the NFB was an organization "of" blind people – as were similar associations in other countries. They were users of the services provided by the "for" agencies. They were a pressure group, able to speak for, and articulate the aspirations of, their members. They insisted that blind people should not be regarded as objects of charity. They called for recognition that blind people are entitled to all the rights enjoyed by other citizens.
An example of a service-providing agency run by blind people is the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), founded in Spain in 1938. Another is the Norwegian Association of Blind and Partially Sighted People (NABP). Its leader from 1971 to 1993 was the late Arne Husveg, who played a major role not only in the work of WCWB, but, after it was formed in 1984, of the World Blind Union (WBU).
In 1964, Jacobus Tenbroek took the opportunity provided by an assembly of WCWB to form the International Federation of the Blind (IFB), with national members being "of" organizations.
WCWB and IFB were to co-exist for 20 years. They had set up regional bodies, for instance WCWB had a European regional committee and IFB had a European area committee. It would be wrong to suggest that there was always and inevitably animosity between these bodies, but there was the possibility of misunderstanding, of duplication or overlapping, and dilution of scarce financial and human resources.
Between 1949 and 1984, international work aimed at improving the well-being of blind people throughout the world increased. The Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, now called Sightsavers International, set up programmes in Africa and Asia. ONCE fostered fledgling organizations in South America; exchange of information about good practice, cross-frontier marketing of equipment and lending of Braille books became commonplace. Blind school children undertook exchange visits to schools for the blind in other countries. Students wishing to train as physiotherapists went to training colleges abroad.
Much more could be written about the work of WCWB and of IFB, but that would fall outside the scope of this book.
(Image of fingers reading Braille)
As we have seen, until 1984 there were two international bodies concerned with the welfare of blind people: the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB), founded in 1951, and the International Federation of the Blind (IFB), founded in 1964.
It is not surprising that many leaders in the blind movement regarded this situation as unsatisfactory. Several countries belonged to both organizations. Even so, there could be, and sometimes was, divergence between the policies being pursued by the two bodies. There was dilution of resources, both financial and human. Gradually, a move to combine the two organizations began to develop.
The two world bodies held General Assemblies separately in 1974, WCWB in São Paulo, Brazil, and IFB in Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany. The next Assemblies were held simultaneously in Antwerp, Belgium in 1979 and attempts were made to merge the two organizations into one world body.
These initial attempts failed. However, a Joint Working Group on Future Cooperation was set up, and WCWB appointed a Working Group on Constitutional Matters. Both working groups submitted their proposals to the Joint Executive Committee Meetings held in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1981 and the proposal of the Working Group on Future Cooperation was unanimously adopted by both organizations. A proposed Constitution provided for "at least 50 per cent representation of organizations representing blind people" from member countries.
Most important, the two Executive Committees decided to convene their next General Assemblies to take place simultaneously in the Middle East.
In September 1984, the European Committees of WCWB and IFB started negotiations on unification. These resulted in the formation of the European Blind Union (EBU) at a meeting in Oslo, Norway. Elsewhere, discussions went on between the two Asian committees and an Asia-Oceania Task Force was set up. This Task Force submitted proposals for a potential unification of the two world organizations. In Africa, attempts had been made to form an All Africa Federation of the Blind.
The General Assemblies of WCWB and IFB were held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 23 to 30 October 1984.
Riyadh was the chosen venue, because it was the home base of Sheikh Abdullah M. Al-Ghanim, familiarly and affectionately known as "the Sheikh". He had been prominent in Saudi Arabia for some time promoting the interests of blind people, and had gained an international reputation working within IFB. He was able to arrange for the representatives of WCWB and of IFB to have their meetings in the King Faisal Conference Centre.
Leading personalities of WCWB were President Dorina de Gouvea Nowill (Brazil) and Secretary General Anders Arnör (Sweden); and of IFB, President Dr Franz Sonntag (Federal Republic of Germany) and Secretary General Leonard de Wulf (Belgium).
WCWB records show that there were 194 national delegates from 70 countries; 69 Associate Members from 30 countries; three International Members; and seven Honorary Life Members.
There were representatives from 60 IFB affiliates and a total of 348 attendees, some of whom were, of course, interpreters and guides.
A notable absentee was Dr Kenneth Jernigan. The National Federation of the Blind of the USA wished to be represented by Rami Rabby. He, however, being from Israel, could not obtain a visa, and Dr Jernigan stayed away in protest.
Neither WCWB nor IFB had any wish to "take over" the other, and the term "merger" was studiously avoided. Instead, each body passed a resolution dissolving itself. The one adopted by WCWB read:
"The Seventh General Assembly of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, gathered in conformity with its Constitution, at the King Faisal Conference Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 23 to 30 October 1984, decides unanimously, after voting as prescribed by its Constitution, upon the recommendation of its Executive Committee, to dissolve itself with effect from 31 December 1984 or on the earliest subsequent date upon which the necessary legal formalities connected with the founding of the World Blind Union have been completed, always provided that the International Federation of the Blind takes the same decision.
Furthermore, the General Assembly recommends to the delegates of member countries to participate in the Founding Assembly of the World Blind Union and to join this Union."
IFB passed a similar resolution.
The significance of 31 December 1984 was that it was considered that, by that date, the World Blind Union would be formally and legally constituted. This happened: it was registered on 20 December 1984 with the authorities in Paris, in accordance with the French Law of 1 July 1901.
On 22 October 1984, a joint meeting of the two Executive Committees appointed a Working Group to draft the Constitution of the World Blind Union. It was chaired by Svend Jensen (Denmark), with four WCWB delegates, Col Boris Zimin, Mr Duncan Watson, Mr Hernando Pradilla-Cobos and Sir John Wilson, and four IFB delegates, Mr Horst Stolper, Mr Lal Advani, Mr John Wamono and Mr David Blyth. Their draft was subsequently unanimously adopted at a Founding Assembly on 26 October 1984.
There were, of course, three general assemblies in Riyadh, those of WCWB, IFB and WBU. The minutes reveal a general consensus. The WCWB resolution set out above was carried unanimously, and the corresponding IFB resolution by 97 votes to nine.
The general consensus carried over, almost completely, into the election of Officers for the first quadrennium of WBU.
Three out of four of the Officers were elected unanimously: Sheikh Abdullah M. Al-Ghanim, President (Saudi Arabia); Mr Anders Arnör, Secretary General (Sweden); Mr Leonard De Wulf, Treasurer (Belgium).
For the first holder of the post of WBU Vice-President, there were two candidates. A secret ballot was held and the result was as follows:
Col Boris Zimin (Soviet Union) was declared elected Vice-President.
WCWB had maintained an administrative office in Paris. Initially, this was situated in the offices of the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind (now Helen Keller International). By 1972, it had moved to the offices of the French Federation at 58 Avenue Bosquet, Paris, 75007. WBU took over this office, and its two staff members, Marina Magaloff and Hilary Gohier, became the first staff members of WBU.
(Photo of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ghanim)
Your editor has derived a memoir from the first WBU President by compiling and editing quotations from his report to the Madrid General Assembly in September 1988. They show that the Sheikh worked very hard to ensure that WBU got off to a flying start.
The Sheikh's Vice-President was Col Boris Zimin (Soviet Union). Anders Arnör (Sweden) had been elected Secretary General in Riyadh, but sadly died on 28 November 1985. Pedro Zurita (Spain) was appointed to take his place by the WBU Executive on 7 October 1986. Leonard de Wulf (Belgium) was Treasurer throughout the quadrennium.
First of all, I would like to express my great pleasure in having the opportunity to welcome you here today, at this General Assembly, which follows four years after the establishment of the World Blind Union in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1984. This Assembly presents an opportunity to discuss issues and aspects of cooperation and coordination, to develop thoughts and to share information which will be of great benefit and help to serve our work as a whole.
After thanking ONCE for hosting the assembly, the Sheikh continued:
It has been a privilege to serve the World Blind Union as its first President. To hold this high office has been an unforgettable experience for me. From the very beginning, I promised to realize the objectives and aims of WBU, and to translate our hopes and ambitions into concrete action, plans and programmes for the 42 million blind persons in the world. I have dedicated myself to do my best to help blind people everywhere, to create a new strategy for the future and to develop a practical programme of action.
This report gives you an overall picture of the major activities and the work that has been done since the foundation of the World Blind Union. I believe that it shows that we have loyally acted upon the Resolutions adopted in Riyadh.
As a first step, I wrote to all the organizations concerned with the blind asking them for information about the situation in their countries: services, future activities or programmes to be implemented, as well as their priorities. An ad hoc committee was set up to analyse the replies and a meeting of the committee was held in Bahrain in April 1985. This resulted in the making of practical recommendations.
Heads of State throughout the world were informed of the creation of the World Blind Union and their attention was drawn to the resolutions adopted in Riyadh. They were requested to take those resolutions into consideration when implementing projects and programmes for the blind in their countries. Encouraging responses were received from many countries.
One of our first tasks was to contact the United Nations, its specialized agencies and inter-governmental committees with a view to resuming the relationships previously enjoyed by the WCWB and IFB. I am pleased to report that WBU now has Category II status with the UN Economic and Social Council and consultative status with UNICEF. It has Category B status with UNESCO and is on the ILO Special List of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). It is also in official relations with the World Health Organization. We have initiated closer contacts with the Food and Agriculture Organization and will apply for consultative status with this agency in the near future. Observer status has been granted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and with the International Copyright Committee. We have liaison status in Category A with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. WBU is also a member of the International Council on Disability, of which I was elected Vice-President. I also maintain permanent contact with all international NGOs concerned with our field of activities, such as the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), the International Council for Education of the Visually Handicapped (ICEVH), International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) and Rehabilitation International (RI).
Fundraising: Since the beginning of my term of office I have devoted considerable effort to raising funds and seeking reliable resources for WBU. This has resulted in a donation of US $100,000 by His Majesty King Fahd Ibn Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, a donation of US $125,000 by HRH Prince Talal Ibn Abdul Aziz, President of AGFUND, for assistance to the deaf-blind, and an amount of US $50,000 from HH the Emir of Bahrain.
Our financial situation is very good. In addition to the increase in the membership fees, we have continued our fundraising in Saudi Arabia and the funds collected are being used for urgent projects for the blind in Africa and Asia. Two examples: a rural rehabilitation project for the blind in the New Delhi area, which WBU has been supporting since 1986; and a community-based rehabilitation of the blind project in Nepal which was approved in 1987 and will be supported by WBU (see below).
However, perhaps our most important activity has been the continuation of our efforts towards the formation and promotion of organizations of the blind throughout the world, especially in developing countries, with a view to recruiting them into membership.
As the expansion of membership is one of the priorities of WBU, we have taken the necessary steps, in cooperation with the regional committees, to increase the number of member countries in WBU.
I am pleased to inform you that WBU has to date a total of 96 member countries, four International Members, and 63 Associate Members in 24 countries.
The World Blind Union's quarterly bulletin The World Blind has appeared in its new style. Fourteen issues have been published so far and mailed to individual subscribers, societies and organizations in most countries of the world.
I have visited all the regions, which has given me the opportunity to speak about WBU and expound its philosophy. I was also able to learn at first hand about the situation of the blind in different parts of the world.
In January 1985, I participated in the Silver Jubilee international conference of the Pakistan Association of the Blind, held in Karachi. In October 1985, I attended the 23rd Session of UNESCO General Conference in Bulgaria. On this occasion I was given the opportunity to address the participants and to explain the objectives of WBU. I also made an appeal to Ministers of Education, asking them to make every effort to give priority to education programmes for the blind, both in urban and rural areas. I also raised the problem of copyright for the production of reading materials in Braille, talking books and large print, and presented a statement on behalf of the International Council on Disability. I participated in the 1985 National Convention of the American Council of the Blind, held in Las Vegas in July, and presented a paper on this occasion. I made two visits to Paris during 1985: the first, when I was invited as a member of the Sponsoring Committee to officiate at the arrival on the Champs Elysées of the International Tandem Race for the Blind, and the second when I participated in the National Conference of the French Federation of the Blind. In November 1985, I attended the Regional Conference in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, when the Latin American Blind Union (ULAC) was formed. In January 1986, I was present at the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Asian Blind Union in New Delhi, India and had the opportunity of participating in the 177th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Louis Braille. In the meantime, I opened a rural rehabilitation three-phased project for the blind in the New Delhi area, with annual support of US $14,000 from the World Blind Union over a period of three years.
I paid two visits to ONCE in Madrid. The first was in February 1986, when we discussed the question of aid to associations in Latin America by ONCE, and we signed an agreement in this regard. The second visit was in August 1986, when I attended a meeting in Madrid to review the policy of cooperation with Latin American countries and to study the projects presented by Latin American schools and organizations of and for the blind. We had to decide which of them would be financed by ONCE with the Pts 50,000,000 (approximately US $370,000) allotted within its budget for 1986. The meeting was attended by Mr Per Hagermalm, Chairman of the WBU Committee on Aid to Developing Countries, Mr Enrique Elissalde, President of ULAC, the late Mr Antonio Vicente Mosquete, President of the General Council, ONCE, and other leaders from member countries of ULAC.
In June 1986, at the invitation of the All-Russia Association of the Blind, I was able to see some of the activities of the All-Russia and Uzbek Associations of the Blind and to visit factories run by the Associations, as well as rehabilitation and cultural centres in the USSR. I should like to express my admiration for the work of the All-Russia Association of the Blind, my deep gratitude to its former president (and the Vice-President of WBU), Boris Zimin, and my thanks for the kind hospitality extended to me and to my colleagues.
In October 1986, I attended the Louis Braille Memorial Committee Meeting, held in Paris, France. At the invitation of the Pakistani Government, I paid a state visit to Pakistan from 28 November to 5 December 1986. I met the President, General Zia Al-Huq, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Governors of Sind and Punjab, and Federal Government Ministers. The visit allowed me to discuss various aspects of cooperation and to study the plans for the improvement of the situation of blind people in Pakistan. On the occasion of my visit, I officially opened "Dar Al-Azm" Resource and Training Centre for Blind Women in Rawalpindi and I paid a visit to Al-Faisal Markaz, the school and rehabilitation centre run by the Pakistani Association of the Blind. I also visited some schools, workshops and rehabilitation centres for the blind in the public and private sectors.
The World Blind Union has approved the financing of a community-based rehabilitation project for blind people in two llakas in the Rautahat District of Nepal, with a total contribution of US $27,000 from its account in Riyadh. A project agreement has been signed between WBU and the Nepal Welfare Association of the Blind. The first instalment of WBU's financial contribution (US $5,000) has been sent to the Association for the implementation of the project.
The WBU Standing Committee on Research held its first meeting in New Delhi, India, on 15-16 November 1986. The practical recommendations which resulted from this meeting were of great importance in spreading the concept of research and creating community awareness in this field. The Committee also recommended certain basic guidelines for research on a global basis. The "World Policy on Research into Visual Disability", adopted by the Committee, was circulated to the WBU Regional Presidents and the National Delegations, so that they could take effective action to implement the objectives of this policy.
The WBU Committee on Social Development held its meeting in Veitshochheim, Federal Republic of Germany from 28 July to 1 August 1987. I participated in this meeting, which resulted in fruitful recommendations.
I also participated in the following meetings and conferences:
In June1988, I made the following visits:
[Back in 1987] WBU, in collaboration with the National Institute of Special Education, Islamabad, Pakistan, successfully organized a training course on orientation and mobility to enable instructors to give mobility training to blind persons in various parts of Pakistan and to teach them to develop skills of orientation and to travel safely, purposefully and independently. A mobility expert, Mr Farouk Khalil, was deputed by WBU to supervise the course, the duration of which was nine weeks (2 July-3 September 1987). Five Pakistani trainees have completed the course, which included, in addition to practical training, intensive theoretical lectures in related areas.
WBU, in collaboration with the Ophthalmological Society in Riyadh, organized a seminar for general practitioners in Abha, Saudi Arabia, 23-24 September 1987. This seminar was held under the auspices of HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, Governor of Asser region. The seminar was well attended by general practitioners and ophthalmologists from the region and surrounding areas.
Again in cooperation with the Saudi Ophthalmological Society, WBU is planning to implement a comprehensive and integrated programme for eradicating trachoma in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Trachoma is one of the main causes of blindness, and a major health problem. This programme will be carried out according to a phased plan and timetable for the control and eradication of trachoma in the Kingdom. A centre for the control of trachoma will also be set up in the Regional Bureau of the Middle East Committee for the Blind in Riyadh.
WBU has contributed to the expenses of publishing the Saudi Bulletin of Ophthalmology, which is published quarterly by the Society.
I have signed an agreement with a team of ophthalmologists from the Ministry of Health and the International Hospital in Bahrain to work out an awareness plan, financed by WBU, for the control of blinding diseases by means of films, slides and posters to be shown in schools throughout Bahrain to enlighten and instruct people. The World Blind Union, in cooperation with the Committee on "Save your Sight Campaign" in Bahrain, has issued 6,000 copies of a booklet entitled Save Your Sight, in English and Arabic, for distribution within the Middle East as well as throughout the English-speaking communities in Africa and Asia in order to make people aware of communicable eye diseases and sight protection.
WBU, in collaboration with the Netherlands UNESCO Centre and through the WBU Committee on Aid to Developing Countries, under the UNESCO Co-Action programme (UCA 614), has provided many institutions, societies and schools for the blind, with UNUM cheques*1 for the purchase of Braille equipment, ophthalmic instruments, educational materials and other aids necessary for the blind.
WBU has worked closely with the Unit for Special Education in UNESCO and was recently invited to a "Consultation on Special Education Action for Disabled Persons." WBU was represented at this meeting by its Secretary General and the President of the International Council for Education of the Visually Handicapped together with ICEVH's Regional Chairman for Europe. WBU has also cooperated in the preparatory meetings relating to the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1997).
We have had effective collaboration with WHO and its regional offices for most of the past 40 years, first through WCWB and now through WBU. On the occasion of WHO's 40th anniversary this year, I circulated our members requesting them to seek some means of collaboration with the WHO representative in their respective countries to participate in the celebrations of this anniversary.
WBU considers that it is important to encourage more countries to ratify the ILO Convention No.159, concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment for Disabled Persons. In September 1986, and as recommended by the WBU Committee on Rehabilitation, Training and Employment, I circulated a letter to the Ministers of Labour and Employment and Ministers of Social Welfare in all countries, calling on governments to accelerate the ratification of this Convention.
During my term of office, I have sent urgent appeals to members of WBU, urging them to help to support the Louis Braille Museum. I am happy to say that my appeals did not go unheeded and we very much hope that the Louis Braille Endowment will continue to receive contributions to ensure that the fabric of this important historic property is maintained.
WBU, in collaboration with Rehabilitation International, has organized and financed the First Regional Conference of RI Member Organizations in the Arab region, held in Amman, Jordan, 11-13 April 1988. The Conference resulted in fruitful recommendations and resolutions.
In October 1986, at its meeting in New York, the Executive Committee of the World Blind Union appointed me WBU Secretary General. Africa had always been close to my heart but in 1987 I was given a golden opportunity which enabled me to demonstrate my enthusiasm and energy in my important new post, by helping with the birth and initial blossoming of the African Union of the Blind (AfUB).
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ghanim had, in 1984, been elected WBU President for its first work period. He had been persuaded by Ismaïla Konaté to make the creation of a strong regional union in Africa one of the top WBU priorities during his presidency.
The President of the Union of the Blind in Tunisia (UNAT), Mr Yahia, had kindly agreed to host the AfUB founding assembly in Tunisia, as well as the necessary meetings of its preparatory working group. This group was chaired by Mr Konaté. The customs of the country required that, on almost every occasion that I visited Tunisia, Mr Yahia should take me to meet its then Minister of Education. He even recognized me when I appeared in his office.
Benefiting from the generous support of my employer in Spain, the Spanish National Organization of the Blind (ONCE), I made it my business to attend all the meetings of the preparatory working group in Tunisia. In March 1987, I travelled by myself to Addis Ababa. My purpose was to negotiate with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), to seek the release of a $5,000 grant for the creation of the African Union of the Blind, which the OAU had approved but which it had not transferred to the WBU account. Thanks to the very effective cooperation of the Spanish embassy in Ethiopia, I could hold meetings with key officers in the OAU headquarters. This led to a very positive outcome.
The OAU officer I met in Addis, Mr Ouagé, a gentleman from Burundi, came to a future meeting of the AfUB preparatory working group in Tunisia. The OAU grant was eventually paid to WBU.
Of the members of that working group, I well remember Konaté from Mali, Chomba from Kenya, Chisambi from Zambia and a gentleman from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), whose name I cannot recall. I will never forget that a future AfUB President, Mr Imed Eddine Chaker, patiently and most effectively contributed to the success of our discussions, by acting as English-French interpreter. I actively participated in the meetings as an equal partner of my African friends. I felt very proud when one of the working group members referred to me once as a peacemaker.
Finally, in the autumn of 1987, the Founding Assembly was held in a rather good hotel in a small seaside town called Carthage. Sheikh Abdullah financed the airfares from all countries where suitable delegations could be identified. I was very sorry to learn how difficult a route some delegates had to take to reach Tunisia.
I remember that, on the last day, I had to take action in order to save the preparation work from being frustrated. Although democracy must prevail, it is sometimes better to practise "guided democracy". We had anticipated that the first AfUB President would be Ismaïla Konaté. However, during the election session, delegates who had been very involved in the preparation process came to me to express their concerns. Unexpectedly, the President of the Tunisian Union of the Blind seemed to want to run for the AfUB presidency. As he was the host, he might well be elected – and Konaté feared that he himself might not be.
I hate intervening in electoral processes. One of the greatest feelings of satisfaction I experienced during the time I spent as WBU Secretary General was the knowledge that people could never reasonably suspect that I was doing something beneficial for them in return for their votes. In the situation that had arisen, I used my persuasion and charm, in a diplomatic and delicate manner, to convey to Mr Yahia that his action would, in the circumstances, be inappropriate. He gracefully abandoned the idea of running for President.
AfUB started to undertake tangible projects, thanks to the generous support it received from Scandinavian and other European countries. In 1987, I visited Morocco, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. In 1988, I started to participate enthusiastically in regional leadership seminars: Brazzaville (Congo), for Central Africa; Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), for West Africa; Nairobi (Kenya), for East Africa; and Gaborone (Botswana), for Southern Africa. I also visited Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The WBU Officers met in Bamako, Mali, but although we tried, we did not succeed in staging the WBU Third General Assembly in Nairobi.
My flat in Madrid is full of African ornaments. The one I cherish most is a cloth on which an artist from Mali engraved a poem which Mr Konaté's secretary, Mr Koné, wrote for me.
It is indeed very gratifying for me to contemplate AfUB's present-day vitality and success. I nurtured and fostered it as well as I could when it was being born, and in its early years.
May it continue to flourish, and keep growing, as the champion of the interests and the promoter of equal opportunities for blind people and those with serious sight problems in Africa.
1 United Nations Units of Money ("UNUM cheques") were the result of fundraising from United Nations members. The Netherlands and Japan were particularly generous. UNESCO administered the scheme. Initially, WCWB recommended and supervised disbursement of the cheques. When WCWB was dissolved in 1984, WBU took over from it.
The cheques were a means of providing blind and partially sighted people in developing countries with a wide range of equipment, both high and low tech. This included such items as writing frames and machines, canes, tape recorders and an occasional computer. The amounts were reasonably substantial. During the 1990s, this source of funding dried up.
(Photo of Duncan Watson)
It was noted at the end of Chapter 2, that of the four Officers who served for the first quadrennium of WBU, three were elected unopposed. When in Madrid in 1988 the election of Officers for the second work period took place, there were two candidates for each office. There were 277 registered voters, but only 265 sets of voting papers were handed out.
The voting figures were as follows:
My tenure of office as President began at the end of the WBU Second General Assembly in Madrid in 1988, and ended at the Third General Assembly in Cairo in 1992. I was particularly pleased that we held that Assembly in Africa. By doing so, we emphasized that WBU was working in developing countries, as well as in Europe and the USA.
In my presidential address in Cairo, I said that there were at least 35 million blind people in the world, and 80 per cent of them lived in developing countries. Of that number, only about 5 per cent received either education or rehabilitation services. But the real tragedy was that over 80 per cent of all blindness in developing countries was either preventable or curable.
As WBU President, I was invited to address the United Nations in October 1992, during the Plenary Sessions of the General Assembly held in New York to mark the conclusion on 2 December 1992, of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons. In my speech (see Appendix 2) I drew attention to the plight of blind people in developing countries. It called for urgent action by the United Nations to ensure that in all its development and relief plans, particularly for refugees, there should be a special component with specific finance adequately to provide for the needs of disabled persons.
There were undoubtedly important achievements during my presidency, such as increased public awareness of disability issues in some developing countries, the development of organizations of disabled persons, the promulgation of ILO Convention No. 159, and the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The United Nations Decade of Disabled People resulted in the adoption of a number of policies.
By the end of 1993, those policies were contained in three documents. The World Programme of Action was the basic document. It set out the part to be played by prevention, rehabilitation and equalization of opportunities in such fields as education, training and employment, in achieving independence, integration and full participation in society for disabled people with the same rights and duties of citizenship as all other members of the community. The other two documents were a long-term strategy to further the implementation of the World Programme of Action to the year 2000 and beyond, A Society for All – From Awareness to Action, which contained a series of more narrowly-focused and time-limited objectives; and the United Nations Standard Rules to promote the Equalization of Opportunities for Disabled Persons over a wide range of social fields.
The Rules were not intended to be legally binding. However, their acceptance by member states implied a strong moral and political commitment. It was hoped that they would become International Customary Rules when applied by a considerable number of states with the possibility of their constituting rules in international law.
I took part in the drafting of these Rules, along with other organizations of disabled people.
A major issue which I had to sort out was our relations with our sister international organizations of disabled people. In Madrid in 1988, we passed a Resolution that, as a single disability organization, WBU's priority was to look after the special interests of blind people and not to allow those interests to be submerged or prejudiced by involvement with cross-disability organizations.
That said, however, we all had and have numerous common interests upon which cooperation makes for more effective action. This view was shared by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (ILSMH). In discussions with Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) in Vancouver during Independence '92 in April 1992, it was formally recognized that single disability international organizations had the sole right to speak on behalf of their respective membership groups. It was later agreed in New York to adopt the following principles:
This agreement represented a definite step forward in WBU's relations with our sister organizations.
In my presidential report in Cairo, I paid tribute to the work that our good friend, Hans Hoegh, the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN for the promotion of the Decade, had done. He had been largely instrumental in helping us to have a much higher profile at the UN. Unfortunately, his term of office ended with the Decade.
In 1992, I was able to report that we had over 140 member countries. We were, and I believe we still are, the largest international organization of disabled people in the world. As WBU President, I visited every one of what were then our seven regions. I attended general assemblies in Latin America, where I was greatly impressed by the number of women who took part; in Europe, my home territory; and in East Asia/Pacific, in conjunction with which our Japanese affiliates held the first ever Conference on the Problems of Elderly Blind People. In addition, I attended board meetings of both the African and the Asian Blind Unions. Although there were still some logistic problems in Asia and in Africa, it was my clear impression that, overall, our regional unions were working well. Delegates to the General Assembly were all able to make their own judgements about this from the various Regional Reports which were presented later on.
During the four years of my presidency, the Officers met eight times, the Executive Committee only once. It had been planned that the Executive should have a second meeting and I very much regretted that, owing to lack of money, the Officers were compelled to cancel the meeting arranged for Hong Kong in the autumn of 1991. We all felt that to have held that meeting would have seriously prejudiced our ability to hold the Third General Assembly which, as the sovereign body of our Union, must have priority. More generally, I have to say that in the case of some of our members, lack of money seriously limited our options, though I am pleased to say, by the end of my term, WBU's own finances were in much better shape than at the beginning. Some of our members were extremely generous and I warmly thanked them for their help, without which WBU would simply not have been viable. We were very dependent and correspondingly grateful to ONCE, CNIB and RNIB, who bore all the costs of running the offices of the Secretary General, the Treasurer and the President. I commented at the time that "The downside of this is that lack of funds limits our choice of Officers unreasonably and it also restricts the work of our Committees."
On the subject of Committees, the Secretary General and I had prepared a paper suggesting some changes, which I hoped that the new Executive would consider at its first meeting. I thought that the Committees should take on board human rights issues. I commented that, after all, what we had asked for in the World Programme of Action was no more than our human rights as citizens. I questioned whether the Committees were not too big and whether it was really necessary that every region should be represented on each Committee.
I was able to say that most of the Committees had done very useful work during the quadrennium.
The Aid Committee, for example, had distributed US $275,000 in UNUM cheques [see Note at end of Chapter 3] in support of a wide variety of projects submitted via Regional Presidents. Other important help had been given through our Institutional Development Program to strengthen organizations of blind people in developing countries by means of staff training, culminating in a four-week management course for more senior personnel which concluded in Canada just before the opening of the General Assembly. Aubrey Webson reported on this initiative. I firmly believed, and still believe, that personnel training and institutional development were among our key activities. After all, it is only through effective organizations of blind people that significant improvements in the quality of life of our blind brothers and sisters will ever be achieved.
There was also bilateral aid – member to member. The Norwegians provided the African Union of the Blind with a new headquarters building in Nairobi; ONCE and ULAC had an arrangement which I would have liked to see adopted much more widely as a model, by which the project aid, several hundred thousand dollars a year, was allocated on the recommendation of, and in agreement with, ULAC. I welcomed the fact that other aid donors in the region were joining in this process, and I very much hoped that other donors in other regions would gradually follow suit. The European Blind Union had been working with member countries in the African Union of the Blind, and with the emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. My predecessor, Sheikh Abdullah, had been working in the Middle East region and with Muslim countries generally, and the North Americans worked with Caribbean countries and elsewhere.
Again, there was the Hermoine Grant Calhoun Fund*1, which in the years 1990/1992 awarded 10 scholarships, together worth US $7,100, to young blind women undertaking courses of further education in their own countries: all in the developing world. For the year 1992/93, we had so far received applications for four scholarships, together amounting to US $2,250. This had by no means exhausted the interest on the Fund, which was in a position to make further awards.
Our Committee on Research had, in accordance with one of the Resolutions passed in Madrid, listed research priorities after the widest possible consultation with the membership. The Committee on Social Development had, with WBU funding, produced a second edition of its book on social security benefits, which its editor had available in Cairo. The Music Sub-Committee of our Committee on Access to Information and Culture had at long last reached agreement on Braille Music Notation for which many people had been waiting for years. The Louis Braille Museum Committee had imaginative plans to extend the Museum, provided the necessary finance could be found. The Rehabilitation, Training and Employment Committee had embarked on an in-depth study of the current crisis in rehabilitation.
The Women's Committee had conducted a leadership seminar in the Philippines and the European Blind Union had set up a Women's Commission. Women, as I was able to say, were very active in both the Latin American and the East Asia/Pacific General Assemblies. WBU had established a Women's Fund which was to be increased in the 1993 budget, and there was evidence that some national affiliates were actively seeking to give women a higher profile in the running of their affairs. Nevertheless, although the figures may have changed slightly, I was disappointed to see that when the total of delegates registered for the Cairo assembly stood at 200, only 28 of them were women and, of those, only 17 were blind women. With Observers, it was slightly better. When their total stood at 42, 11 were blind women. I told delegates that I was sorry to say that we still faced a challenge in this area, to which we must try to find answers.
Finally, a small task force had drafted a Plan of Action for the next four years, which was discussed on the final morning of the Assembly. In addition to the message from the Japanese Conference on Elderly Blind People, it contained a mission statement intended to help the next Table Officers and the next Executive to refocus on our objectives, and it detailed the priority areas for action. I expressed the hope that after discussion in the General Assembly, it would actually become a working document for the future, in a way that none of its predecessors had ever managed to be.
I do not wish to end this brief memoir without an expression of gratitude. I repeat my thanks to the late Enrique Elissalde, Vice-President, for his loyal support during my term of office; to Pedro Zurita, Secretary General, for the sterling help he gave me; to Euclid Herie, Treasurer, whose financial skills had enabled me to sleep peacefully in my bed at night; and to all the other Officers for the invaluable contributions they made to our work. All that we did (or failed to do), we did collectively. It was a team effort and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of them. It was a privilege and an unforgettable experience to be WBU President for the Union's second quadrennium. During that time, my late wife Mercia and I met very many WBU individual members personally and we were truly grateful for the friendship and kindness they invariably extended to us.
I concluded my address to the Third General Assembly with this rallying cry:
"I retain a total belief in this movement which means so much to us all. There is still much more to be done than has yet been achieved. We are still only at the beginning of our struggle for independence and full citizenship: for our fair share of the cake. Acting together and in solidarity through the World Blind Union, that struggle will be shorter and our ultimate success better assured."
1 The Hermoine Grant Calhoun Scholarship Fund: Dr Isabella Grant was a prominent member of the National Federation of the Blind of the United States. She had a daughter, Hermoine Grant Calhoun, who predeceased her.
In her will, Dr Grant gave the sum of Thirty-Five Thousand Dollars ($35,000.00) to the National Federation of the Blind, to be used for the following purposes:
"The interest from said sum shall be used for annual scholarships for blind female students for education at the college level, said fund to be known as the Hermoine Grant Calhoun Scholarship."
After Dr Grant's death, the National Federation of the Blind transferred the fund to the International Federation of the Blind (IFB).
When, in 1984, IFB was dissolved, the fund was transferred to WBU.
At the time of publication of this book, the fund is still being very successfully used for the objects laid down by Dr Grant.
(Photo of David Blyth)
In 1992, the Third General Assembly of WBU was held in Cairo, Egypt. In the end, there was only one candidate for each office, and therefore the names on the list below were unopposed. There had, however, been a move to propose Salma Maqbool (Pakistan) for Vice-President. If she had been successful, she would have been the first woman to be a WBU Table Officer. She failed, however, to gain the necessary support of her home country, and her nomination could not therefore proceed.
An excitement of a different kind occurred just after the elections. Cairo was struck by a mild earthquake. It is pleasing to report that this seismic happening did not prevent the celebratory drinks party from continuing on an upper floor of the Intercontinental Hotel.
Results of elections:
The November 1992 World Blind Union General Assembly elected David Blyth as President.
This followed David's having served eight years as President of the East Asia/Pacific region of WBU.
David Blyth's inaugural address to the General Assembly included the following commitments:
Ms Kicki Nordström from Sweden was appointed as Chair of the Status of Blind Women Committee.
Ms Nordström was encouraged to conduct informative workshops and forums in almost every region of the Union and in so doing encouraged blind women to become involved in leadership within their countries and home organizations as the key vehicle in improving their status.
The Toronto General Assembly was preceded by the first Global Blind Women's Forum. This Forum was well attended and demonstrated a new found confidence in blind women, and their issues became issues for the Toronto General Assembly where their contribution was warmly welcomed. The prediction of an improved gender balance at the General Assembly was also very welcome.
The Toronto General Assembly also saw the emergence of the World Blind Union Foundation. This Foundation lasted through the following term (when Dr Euclid Herie was President) but regrettably was closed through lack of support by the following administration.
The effort to involve more grass-roots support of the Union and all that it stood for was a more subtle development. Many visits were made to organizations of and for the blind in developing countries where both their leaders and memberships were encouraged to become involved.
David Blyth was the first President to visit South Africa following the collapse of apartheid in that country. His visit was heralded as a vote of confidence in the black and non-white citizens of that country and subsequent history demonstrates that this was a crucial step to have taken.
All regions were visited and a wide range of visits to disadvantaged persons was made in the name of the Union.
Vietnam became a special cause. This country had been torn apart by war but the spirit of the blind people responded to David's visiting in a strong and positive way. A wonderful partnership was developed with David's home country, Australia. This partnership culminated in a joint project training blind and sighted women as teachers of Braille and Orientation and Mobility. By the time it concluded, this project provided in excess of 150 specialists within the country.
Another achievement was the emergence of the People's Republic of China as a country wishing to contribute to the global cause.
The great work initiated with the United Nations by David's predecessor (Sir Duncan Watson) was a further area of special focus that continued during this term.
The establishment of an Experts Panel of 12 persons with a disability to support the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations Standard Rules (see below) was a particular success for WBU. After many long discussions, the Union established its right to have two places on the panel, and Ms Penny Hartin (Canada) and Dr William Rowland (South Africa) were appointed to represent WBU.
At the Toronto Assembly, several significant changes to the original Constitution of WBU were made, including:
As President, David Blyth was assisted and supported by his predecessor, Sir Duncan Watson, the Officers mentioned at the beginning of this chapter and the following Regional Presidents:
It should be noted that the skills of oratory and debate within this group resulted in wide and long lasting discussions which led to the best of decisions being made in the interests of the Union and its membership.
The closing remarks of David Blyth at the Toronto General Assembly saw him thank the Officers, the Executive Committee Members, the Chairs of the Committees, and in particular Kicki Nordström, as Chair of the Status of Blind Women Committee, for all that they had contributed throughout his term. He also thanked the Canadian National Institute for the Blind for their generous hosting of an excellent Fourth General Assembly.
The following is an extract from a letter dated 21 April 1993 from Pedro Zurita to all WBU members.
"Following the retirement on 31 March 1993 of our only employee in Paris, Miss Marina Magaloff, the Executive agreed to close the operation of the Paris office in order to save money and to concentrate all the administrative activities of our Secretariat in the Madrid office.
However, the officers at their meeting held in Hong Kong on April 6 and 7 1993 adopted the resolution of maintaining the official headquarters of the Union at 58 Avenue Bosquet in Paris until the time when the Executive will decide otherwise. Our interests there will be taken care of by the French Federation of the Blind, the organization which let us office space for many years under very favourable conditions, and by the standing office of the European Blind Union which occupies from 1 April the rooms we have vacated.
You are all kindly urged to address all your correspondence to the Madrid office and to instruct everyone in your country wishing to contact the Secretariat to use the Madrid address until further notice.
Those of you present in the Cairo Assembly will recall that we paid there a public tribute to Miss Magaloff for the devotion, efficacy and honesty with which she worked for us and other international organizations for over 30 years. Let us express to her now our gratitude and our sincere wish for happiness in the new phase of her life."
In his memoir (see Chapter 4) Duncan Watson reported that he had been involved in the drafting of the United Nations Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, which came to be known as the UNSR. Negotiations were still in progress when David Blyth succeeded Duncan as WBU President. David thought it appropriate that Duncan should represent WBU in bringing the negotiations to a conclusion. This he did, and the UNSR were adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 December 1993.
There are 22 rules. After four rules setting out preconditions, there followed eight identifying target areas for equal participation:
The last 10 rules contained implementation measures:
As Duncan pointed out in Chapter 4, the Rules were not legally binding. However, their acceptance by member states implied a strong moral and political commitment. It was hoped that they would become International Customary Rules when applied by a considerable number of states with the possibility of their constituting rules in international law.
Part IV of the Rules provided that they would be monitored within the framework of the sessions of the UN Commission for Social Development. A Special Rapporteur with relevant and extensive experience of disability issues and international organizations was to be appointed, for three years (subsequently extended), to monitor the implementation of the Rules. A Panel of Experts, on which organizations of persons with disabilities were to have a majority, taking into account the different kinds of disabilities and necessary equitable geographical distribution, was to be formed, and consulted by the Special Rapporteur.
Bengt Lindqvist (Sweden) was appointed Special Rapporteur. Bengt, who is blind, had already had a very distinguished career, notably as a minister in the government of his home country. He had also taken part in the international blind movement, and was Treasurer of the International Federation of the Blind. Of the 12 Panel members, two were appointed by WBU: William Rowland and Penny Hartin (see Memoir above).
In March 1995, the WBU Human Rights Committee, chaired by William Rowland, issued a User's Guide to the UNSR. The advice it contained was designed to assist WBU national members in seeking implementation of the Rules. By 2003, it could be reported at a conference on disability law held in the United Kingdom that 41 countries had adopted legislation protecting and promoting the rights of disabled people.
Besides encouraging legislative measures, the UNSR had a considerable influence in encouraging states to improve the lives of their disabled citizens. They have now been largely replaced by the provisions of the legally binding Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which came into force in countries which have ratified it on 3 May 2008.
By 1995, laser technology had been used by the worldwide arms manufacturing industry for a quarter of a century. It had become clear that weapons were being developed designed specifically to cause blindness. WBU, one of whose objects is the prevention of blindness, took a prominent part in seeking to outlaw these weapons. David Blyth asked Duncan Watson to head up a delegation to a review conference being convened by the United Nations in Vienna in September 1995.
The conference was called to review the convention on prohibitions or restrictions on the use of certain conventional weapons which may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.
Duncan argued that these weapons would both increase the number of blind people in the world, and divert much needed funds from the prevention of blindness. WBU and its allies opposed the development, production and use of laser weapons designed specifically or primarily to cause blindness.
Lack of space prevents the giving of a full account of what turned out to be a successful campaign and a major triumph for WBU and those who supported it. On 12 October 1995, the following protocol to the convention was adopted (only the first two articles are quoted here):
It is prohibited to employ laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.
In the employment of laser systems, the High Contracting Parties shall take all feasible precautions to avoid the incidence of permanent blindness to unenhanced vision. Such precautions shall include training of their armed forces and other practical measures.
(Photo of Euclid Herie)
Delegates from 131 countries from all the then seven regions of the World Blind Union attended the General Assembly in Toronto, Canada. There was, however, some concern expressed that the Canadian Government had refused visas to representatives of African countries. Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan were not represented, and this was particularly unfortunate, since the representative of Nigeria, Chief Okubanjo, was the Secretary General of the African Union of the Blind. The refusal had been on economic rather than political grounds. In particular, Chief Okubanjo had been asked to produce his bank statements for the past five years. Everyone agreed that this was unreasonable.
Results of elections:
Delegates were delighted that we had, for the first time, elected a woman – Kicki Nordström – as a Table Officer. It was also announced during the General Assembly that one of the Regional Unions of WBU (East Asia/Pacific) had elected Grace Chan (Hong Kong) as its President, the first woman President of a Regional Union.
Despite losing his sight as a teenager, Euclid Herie was motivated to lead an active, challenging and, most importantly, independent life. Growing up in Manitoba, Canada, he knew that the only way he could achieve his life's goals would be to get a good education, and this he did. In 1963, he became only the second blind person to graduate from the University of Manitoba with a degree in social work; he went on to earn a Master's degree in the same field.
In 1983, just five years after joining the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), Herie was appointed its President and CEO. Over the next 17 years, until his retirement in 2001, his career took him to some of the most exotic and remote places within Canada and around the world. In important ways, the world was changing rapidly, and within a global framework Herie undertook to change what it means to be blind, both at home and abroad.
Although his predecessors at CNIB had attended meetings of international associations of the blind, none of them found a place on the world blindness stage like he did.
Herie had been introduced to WBU through his friendship with the American, Kenneth Jernigan, who had served as President of WBU's North America/Caribbean region from 1985 until shortly before his death in 1998.
"For many years, Ken was probably the most influential person in the international blind community", Herie says. "He was a true friend and mentor to me and I was inspired and guided by his wisdom. Ken taught me that, 'No one can give us our freedom ... we must take it for ourselves.' "
In deference to Jewish members of the CNIB national board of directors, the organization had not sent a delegation to the founding WBU General Assembly, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1984 because Jewish delegates were not allowed into the country. However, National Board Chair John Baker, son of CNIB founder Edwin Baker, suggested to Herie that, "there will be another day for your leadership on an international scale".
That day came in 1988, at the second WBU General Assembly held in Madrid, when Herie, who had been accompanied to the Assembly by CNIB board members TG (Tim) Sheeres and Marion Davey, was elected WBU Treasurer. He held the position for eight years, and then decided that was enough time to devote to WBU.
"It was a lot of work and my involvement came at a cost to CNIB. It had never occurred to me that I would be the WBU President and then a funny series of events took place."
In the run up to the 1996 General Assembly, which had been scheduled to take place in Hong Kong, problems began to emerge and it became clear that a new host country for the Assembly would have to be found. New Zealand and Canada stepped forward and offered to host it. By a 10:2 vote, Canada was chosen.
And then, during a casual conversation with Robert Waugh, at that time Chair of the CNIB board of directors, Herie, who had by then been President of CNIB for 13 years, reconsidered his position, and with the board's endorsement agreed to run for WBU President.
"I was confident that CNIB was running smoothly and I was freer to take on the increased responsibilities of the President's role than I would have been 10 years earlier."
A strategic planning group of CNIB senior management swung into action and through established networks, a campaign to win delegates' votes from Africa, Europe and Asia was launched. As it turned out, however, the campaign was not needed; at the last minute the opposition candidate withdrew, so at the Fourth General Assembly, held in Toronto from 26 to 30 August 1996, Euclid Herie was declared President of WBU.
Withdrawing the Fourth General Assembly from Hong Kong was a courageous decision by then WBU President David Blyth and his Officers, says Herie, adding that the decision created concern in Hong Kong that resounded for several years well into his own term as President.
The Fourth General Assembly, attended by 800 delegates, observers and guides from 150 countries and organized and hosted by CNIB, was an outstanding logistical success. It set the tone for Herie's presidency.
He chose "The Power of the Dream", borrowed from the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, as the theme for his four-year term.
"The power of the dream will be discovered in a future where fairness, equality, and personal freedom will allow the blind of the world to compete on a level playing field on terms and conditions common to all", he said in his inaugural address. Dedicating himself to work on behalf of the world's blind community to achieve equality and justice, Herie added, "Together, we will create a society free from ancient prejudices and negative attitudes that for too long relegated blind people to the status of children of minor wives."
Sadly, within months of Herie's becoming President, tragedy struck the WBU.
Secretary General Pedro Zurita of Spain was seriously injured and a key volunteer from Morocco was killed in a car crash outside Casablanca. As the volunteer's wife was pregnant with the couple's second child, Herie personally raised US $10,000 to support the widow and her two children.
"Immediately following Zurita's accident, and for the rest of my term, José Maria Arroyo, President of the Spanish Organization for the Blind (ONCE), pledged unfettered support to my office and the WBU", acknowledges Herie. "It was this friendship, and that of others too many to name among the leaders of the blind throughout the world, that supported me and made it all worthwhile."
As a result of Zurita's injuries, virtually all of the WBU Secretariat support responsibilities fell squarely on Herie's office at CNIB.
"What truly made the term workable was a strategic planning meeting hosted by Geoffrey Gibbs, Director of the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind, held in Auckland with the new Table Officers. The detailed record of that meeting, taken by my executive assistant Barbara Marjeram, served as the blueprint for my first Officers' Meeting held in Sri Lanka in February 1997, and for the balance of my term."
Over the next four years – approximately 1,500 days – as leader of the world's 140 million blind persons, Herie tried to impress upon the industrialized countries of the West the degree to which the developing world lags behind in medical and social advances and the appalling challenges facing blind people because of this.
He enumerated some of the problems: blindness prevention, illiteracy, poverty, human rights violations, the perilous status of blind women, the absence of basic rehabilitation and employment training, shocking living conditions and the poor health of blind people living in refugee camps and other improvised communities.
Throughout his presidency he focused his attention on several key areas, including Braille literacy, accessible and affordable technology, the issue of copyright, maintaining universal postage rights, the restoration and promotion of the Louis Braille birthplace in Coupvray, France, and the status of blind women.
Impetus for Herie's concern for blind women arose from WBU's first Women's Forum that was held over three days before the official start of the Toronto Assembly. The forum shone the world's spotlight on blind women's vulnerability to abuse, neglect and marginalization and the sad fact that in many countries, blind girls are denied the right to an education. The number of female delegates to the Assembly had risen to more than 100 in 1996 from a meagre 17 in 1992. The forum was chaired by Penny Hartin, a senior CNIB executive, who went on to become CEO of WBU.
Over the course of his WBU presidency, Herie, usually accompanied by executive assistant Marjeram and occasionally CNIB board chair Gary Homer, visited more than 60 countries, including Russia, India and the United Kingdom, delivering speeches, promoting causes and advocating for the rights of blind persons throughout the world.
One of his most memorable successes came in 1999. Herie had arrived in Beijing, China, to address a congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The night before he was scheduled to speak he received a telephone call advising that a resolution had been submitted to the congress that threatened to eliminate the provision of free postal services for literature for the blind around the world.
Herie and Homer drafted a two-page statement that they dictated line by line to a young Chinese woman. The document, as distributed to the UPU delegates, became a cornerstone of WBU policy. Following Herie's impassioned seven-minute intervention to congress delegates, the proposal was defeated by three votes. As a result, blind persons in virtually every country of the world continue to be the beneficiaries, as they have for more than a century, of an international agreement for the exchange and delivery of embossed and audio material for personal, educational and employment use.
As a testament to the good relations and strong bond between WBU and UPU, Thomas Leavey, Director General of UPU, delivered the keynote address to the General Assembly in Melbourne in 2000.
Herie has been passionate all his life about Braille literacy. A tireless advocate, he believes that all blind people around the world are entitled to equal access to Braille.
In support of that vision, the Melbourne Assembly mandated that WBU establish a World Braille Council.
James (Jim) Sanders, Herie's successor as President and CEO of CNIB, was that organization's Vice-President of International Affairs during Herie's term as President of WBU.
"Jim deserves a great deal of credit for his work in the area of Braille literacy and leadership training programs with the WBU," says Herie. "Training manuals and other materials to promote Braille literacy developed under his guidance retained their relevancy for the decade to follow."
The Louis Braille birthplace, held under the stewardship of WBU, was restored at a cost of US $250,000 and a formal ceremony marking the event was held at the home in 1997. While restoration of the home was a significant accomplishment, Herie's efforts over several years to persuade UNESCO to recognize the Braille homestead as a UNESCO world heritage site were left unresolved. However, the Melbourne Assembly did adopt a resolution to enshrine 4 January, the birth date of Louis Braille, as World Braille Day.
Herie proposed that WBU establish a Committee on Indigenous Blind People and this was done.
A major disappointment of Herie's presidency centred on the establishment of the World Blind Union Foundation. Designed to be the fundraising arm of WBU, and the dream of former WBU President David Blyth, the Foundation was established through hard work by CNIB, during a process that Herie describes as "very costly and prolonged requiring several years and intricate legal gymnastics". However, at a meeting in Mumbai in 2002, the Executive reversed the decision and the WBU Foundation was dissolved, a decision that Herie feels was ill-advised and controversial.
Throughout his presidency, Herie was privileged to meet with heads of state, royalty, and senior government officials. No door was closed to him.
"I called on Canadian ambassadors and high commissioners in most of the countries I visited. Without exception, they were courteous and welcoming to the WBU Officers and supported our work."
"I was welcomed graciously to so many gathering places in so many countries", Herie recalls. "What affected me most was meeting blind men, women and children in developing countries. They gave us their affection, respect and outright expressions of hope that I, personally, and WBU would sustain them and be a bridge to equality, freedom and economic security."
In Morocco, he was generously hosted by members of the royal family, including Princess Lalla Lamia. It was partly due to these visits that in 2001 L'Union Francophone des Aveugles (UFA) was established in Casablanca. Affiliated with WBU, UFA represents all French-speaking countries in the world, including Romania, with reference to Braille literacy.
Meetings of the WBU Officers and Executive are fundamental to the organization's operation and Herie attended them in Pretoria, Beijing, London, Toronto, Madrid, among other cities. During his term, Executive meetings were held in Casablanca and Stockholm.
"Attendance at regional assemblies was both important and productive; but none more so than the first Middle East Assembly held in Amman, Jordan, hosted by the royal family and presided over by Sheikh Abdullah M. Al-Ghanim."
Directing the affairs of WBU was complicated when two Regional Presidents, Kenneth Jernigan of the United States and Enrique Elissalde of Uruguay, died while Herie was in office. Of the seven Regional Presidents in place when his term began in 1996, only one, Grace Chan (East Asia/Pacific) still held office when it ended in 2000.
As the good relationship between CNIB and WBU continued, Herie worked closely with Frances Cutler, the fifth CNIB Chair to support his work during his 12 years as a WBU Officer.
To mark the end of his term, at the Fifth General Assembly, held in Melbourne, Australia, in November 2000, Herie challenged Terry Kelly, an award-winning blind musician from Nova Scotia, Canada, to write and perform a song called "The Power of the Dream", which would capture the spirit of his presidency.
"When Terry performed that song at the closing ceremony held at the Melbourne Town Hall, it brought the audience to its feet", Herie said. "The words and music galvanized the collective energy and resolve from the Assembly that this young world body knew beyond any doubt that it would indeed 'change what it means to be blind!' " (To download "The Power of the Dream", visit www.terry-kelly.com)
At the end of his presidency in 2000, Herie was elected one of only 17 Honorary Life Members in WBU.
Reflecting on the high points of his 1,500 days as President of WBU, Herie is nostalgic:
"It was a monumental privilege and a personal honour to be given the opportunity to serve in this high office.
"For me, it was a defining moment in the history of blindness to have been able to share my own Power of the Dream with so many wonderful people around the world. The experience made a huge difference in my life, and I hope I was able to make a difference, however small, in the lives of others. I owe every WBU delegate who placed his or her confidence in me a debt of gratitude that is beyond repayment."
(Photo of Pedro Zurita)
I think it is appropriate that I should share with my friends all over the world information throwing light on the origin of my lasting interest in the work of the international blind movement.
I was born in a little village, Sotu Cangues, in Asturias, a region in northern Spain and my father was the schoolmaster for that little village of 200 inhabitants and for some surrounding villages. I was born with congenital glaucoma and I had some residual sight until I was 11. At that time in Spain there was no talk about integrated education. I owed much to the fact that my father was a schoolteacher. I could read and write using the "sighted" alphabet when I was very young.
Like many blind people of my generation, I am a product of specialized education. I was fortunate to enjoy a free of charge elite education in the residential schools maintained by the Spanish national organization of the blind, ONCE. Starting my specialized schooling when I was 10, at the school in Pontevedra, I made rapid progress. In the second year, I was given an opportunity to learn French as an optional subject. I must confess that I very much liked French. It sowed the seed for what was to become my international career.
In 1961, I transferred to the ONCE school in Madrid for my secondary education. For me, the official curriculum did not satisfy my insatiable thirst for knowledge, especially for knowledge of foreign languages. By hard work, besides French, I was able to learn English, German, Russian and Italian. There were primers in Braille for those languages in the Madrid school library and in the ONCE central library.
During the 1960s, I went abroad: a month in a summer camp for the blind in France; to a summer school in Camp Wapanacki in the USA; three months at Oxford, England; two months in Bavaria, Germany; a stay in Salzburg, Austria; and visits to Italy – learning languages all the time. In 1975, 1976 and 1978, I attended Russian training courses in Moscow.
When I was at the ONCE secondary school, a blind teacher aroused my interest in Esperanto, the international auxiliary language which is intended to become the tool of communication among people who do not share the same mother tongue. Esperanto became another facet of my international activity. In 1968, I attended the universal Esperanto congress in Madrid and enthusiastically cooperated in the arranging of the congress, also in Madrid, of the International League of Blind Esperantists. This led to attendance at mainstream and blind Esperanto congresses in Vienna, London, Rimini (Italy), Belgrade, Hamburg and Varna (Bulgaria). The Esperanto ideals have remained with me ever since.
In 1973, I attended the first European Braille conference held by WCWB in Oslo, Norway. In subsequent years, I attended European WCWB conferences on other subjects in Sweden, the Netherlands and elsewhere. My first contact with the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) was at the World General Conference in Madrid in 1972 and I attended the one in Paris in 1977, when ICEVI became an independent international organization, and I was present at later conferences. From 1985 to 1987 I was European President of ICEVI. In 1977, I took part for the first time in a Latin American conference on education and employment of the blind in São Paolo, Brazil.
My international interests prompted me very early on to seek involvement in the running of the international blind movement. In 1974, I applied for the position of WCWB Secretary General – a paid post. This was not realized, because WCWB was compelled to decide to continue having an honorary (not a remunerated) position. I continued to be very active in the international field: on behalf of ONCE, I played a high profile part in the work of WCWB and of the International Federation of the Blind (IFB), as well as in Latin America.
Leaders of blind organizations in other countries who wished to unite the international blind movement had my full support. I was present in Oslo when members of the IFB and WCWB European regional committees formed the European Blind Union after the dissolution of the former committees.
I was in Riyadh when the World Blind Union was founded in October 1984. On that occasion, however, while the assemblies that brought about the foundation of WBU were in progress, I spent most of my time in a booth acting as simultaneous interpreter for the Spanish speaking participants.
At the end of 1985, Anders Arnör, the first WBU Secretary General, who came from Sweden, died unexpectedly. With the unreserved support of the President of the very young Latin American Union of the Blind, Enrique Elissalde; of the then president of ONCE, Antonio Vicente Mosquete; and the endorsement of the first WBU President, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ghanim; I submitted my candidature to become WBU Secretary General. This was discussed and adopted by the WBU Executive on 13 October 1986 at a meeting held in New York. My candidature was viewed as clashing with the plans which the European Blind Union had for the Second WBU Assembly, due to take place in 1988, and I was sorry that the votes of the EBU representatives and of Shahid Memon, President of the Asian Blind Union, were cast against me. That did not affect the result of the election.
Besides my Secretary Generalship, ONCE also obtained agreement that the Second WBU Assembly should be held in Madrid in September 1988. In 1988 ONCE celebrated its Golden Jubilee.
I honestly think that I brought to WBU a good dose of fresh air: my command of several European languages; my youth, something unusual at that time among WBU Officers; my first-hand knowledge of the situation of blind people, having been to many European and American countries; and my unequivocal commitment to the task of achieving social equality and inclusion for people with vision disabilities all over the world.
I was fortunate that from the very beginning of my tenure of office I could count on the generous and tangible support of ONCE. They provided me with very effective facilities and resources to carry out my job on behalf of WBU, which I was able to do without spending a single cent from WBU's meagre financial resources.
I can honestly say that I was never moved in my actions by the pursuit of prestige, a wish to satisfy my ego, or other similar motives. It was crystal clear to me from the outset that I was part of a team and that the WBU guiding personality was its President. Anyhow, I was convinced that there was very wide scope for me to embrace positive initiatives. I worked under the leadership of four Presidents and during those 14 years I had many fellow Officers. From all of them I learned a lot and I have always tried to plant seeds of goodwill, as well as progressive ideas.
Besides helping to implement WBU Resolutions, I was always guided by very firm moral principles, as well as seeking to make progress towards the creation of a society for all.
I willingly afforded WBU and its members the benefits arising from my command of several languages. I enjoyed the very effective support of the Secretariat in Paris until 1993. Thanks to the generosity of ONCE, I had an office in Madrid from 1987 onwards. Hilary Gohier and Marina Magaloff in Paris and Sylvie Rochigneux and Paula Soto in Madrid deserve my unqualified gratitude and praise. Although our office staff was small, we saw to it that matters were attended to effectively and quickly. Mail from WBU members, or from blind individuals in any part of the world, always got a prompt reply. It is true that I travelled a lot but on every trip I devoted time to attend to correspondence pending in the Madrid office by phone. That meant that my frequent trips abroad never caused a halt in the effective office work in Madrid.
When WBU was created in 1984, its Constitution incorporated the principle that it was the sole independent voice of organized blind people, all over the world. Organized blind people never had any misgivings as to the appropriateness of having such an independent mouthpiece. Some people from developing countries expressed their feeling that WBU encounters provided them with examples of role models which assisted them in coping with vision disability. When I took up my office in October 1986, there were around 60 member countries, but when I retired from it in November 2000 our world family consisted of 156 countries. Prior to becoming WBU Secretary General, I had worked with Latin American friends to help to overcome the organizational problems and lack of effectiveness on that continent. I feel proud to have participated in the creation of the Latin American Union of the Blind. It held its Founding Assembly in November 1985.
After my election in New York I thought that one of my priorities should be to help in the founding of the African Union of the Blind. [Editor's note: This is dealt with in Pedro's contribution to Chapter 3, "AfUB – how it started".]
In 1987, I travelled to a conference in Taiwan and paid a visit to Japan. There I met several groups of young vision impaired people who wanted to see me. I seriously attempted to listen to them and to discuss with them the role of WBU. Last August [2007], when I visited Japan without any official hat on, it was very interesting to find that some of those young people had turned into mature professionals and relevant organizational officers.
In October 1987, I visited Thailand, Hong Kong and Guangzhou in China. After that first visit, I had several opportunities to go to Thailand and I could see the growth of the organized blind movement very clearly.
In March 2000, in my last year as a WBU Officer, I attended an Officers' Meeting in Beijing. I also took part in a pan-disability meeting convened by the China Disabled Persons Federation. This marked the beginning of a campaign to seek a United Nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
I attended part of the General Assembly of the Latin American Union of the Blind in April 2000, in Panama (a very encouraging picture compared with the situation there in 1984); visited Cameroon early in May; was in Addis Ababa at the Assembly of the African Union of the Blind; attended the Founding Assembly of the Association of the Blind in Cambodia; and in Paris chaired, in the framework of an international conference on physiotherapy as a profession for the blind, a session where massage specialists from Thailand, China and Japan spoke on physical therapy practised by vision impaired people in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
I delivered my farewell report to the WBU General Assembly in Melbourne in November, 2000.
Everywhere I went, I had adamantly championed the cause of full social inclusion for the blind and our inalienable right to speak for ourselves.
I have described in some detail my activities during my first and last years in office, because they demonstrate the way I went about my work all the time I held that important international position.
Information and its dissemination were key areas for me. We strived to upgrade the WBU news bulletin, The World Blind, which was turned into a real magazine with an attractive layout. We published it in inkprint, Braille and cassette in English and Spanish and in inkprint and cassette in French. Besides the generous help of ONCE, we had the cooperation and assistance of WBU national members in Sweden, France, Uruguay and Italy.
In the spring of 1998, we started the WBU website.
We carefully arranged meetings of the Officers and the Executive in different places in all WBU regions. Highlights of our office work were the close involvement in the holding of the General Assemblies in Madrid in 1988, in Cairo in 1992, in Toronto in 1996 and in Melbourne in 2000. I set in motion cooperation between several generous organizations to supplement the help of WBU to ensure that ideally all member countries could send delegates to our world gatherings.
Having a policy of gender equality, we tried to ensure that one male and one female delegate from each developing country would be subsidized to attend the assemblies in Toronto and Melbourne. With the effective cooperation of different travel agencies in places throughout the world, a strategy was implemented to ensure that airline tickets would cost WBU as little as possible.
I visited those countries where I thought that my presence would be most helpful in advancing the cause of the blind. I attended all regional assemblies in all WBU regions except for North America/Caribbean where they preferred to hold their gatherings without the participation of Officers from other regions.
Communication with regional unions and standing committees was one of my main concerns. I enjoyed frequent and active mail contact with the Icelandic Chairperson of the new WBU Standing Committee on Youth, Sigrun Bessadottir, after the Toronto Assembly. I strived to maintain regular contact with the UN agencies carrying out activities within the sphere of WBU.
On 9 January 1997, while on an official visit to Morocco to prepare for the meeting of the Executive Committee in that country in the last quarter of that year, I suffered very serious injuries in a car accident (I was unconscious for a month). I was very happy to receive messages from all over the world wishing me a speedy and complete recovery. I wrote with absolute sincerity that what had happened had given me an opportunity to experience the most positive side of human nature.
The results of the accident prompted me to announce, immediately after resuming regular activity that I would not run for re-election in 2000.
My two assistants in the office, Sylvie Rochigneux and Paula Soto, had kept things moving most creditably during my inevitable absence. I resumed work as soon as possible. Sylvie and Paula came to go through documents with me during my last days in hospital. They regularly visited my home on all working days until I resumed office attendance early in June that year. Although my speech clearly showed that something serious had happened to me, several people encouraged me to honour all my major commitments to speak at several international meetings. At the end of June 1997, I participated in a meeting of the commission of social solidarity of the French Catholic organization of the blind; early in August I delivered one of the main papers in the world ICEVI conference in São Paolo, Brazil; and late in August I spoke at a meeting, held in Copenhagen, of libraries for the blind, on the expectations blind people harboured regarding the new DAISY talking books for the blind. Late in October, I attended the meeting of the Executive in Morocco, which I had tried to prepare in January.
During my international career, I visited 95 countries in all corners of the world. I very much like what Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind in the USA, once said referring to the role of WBU:
"We should see to it that our international organization becomes relevant for every country, developing and industrialized, and for every single blind person anywhere in the world."
We spend much time preaching to the converted. We must find ways to put our case to the mainstream social set-up and we must ensure full inclusion in society: we should aim to achieve a world truly for all.
From 1986 to 2000, I devoted myself with all my heart and mind to activities geared towards the opening of new opportunities for the blind anywhere in the world. I earnestly worked long hours every day, I tried to reduce as much as possible my holidays and to read any paper that might be of interest for my work. I endeavoured to know every relevant detail about work for the blind anywhere in the world and get to know all potential contributors to our activities. When committees or task forces needed to be formed, I could always come up with a list of names.
On a lighter note, it is indeed a pity that the idea – the criticism – of Shahid Memon from Pakistan, did not result in the inclusion of a new word in the English language. Shahid more than once complained that WBU was too "zuritarized". From November 2000, I have not made the least effort to keep zuritarizing WBU but many people in Spain and abroad have had ample proof of my willingness to help, whenever I have been requested to do so, in matters that fall within the scope of my knowledge, experience, ability and expertise. I pledge to continue to do that for as long as I am able.
(Photo of Kicki Nordström)
At the Fifth General Assembly, held in Melbourne, Australia in November 2000, election results were as follows:
My term began in late November 2000 at the close of the Fifth WBU General Assembly, held in Melbourne, Australia, and ended in Cape Town, South Africa in December 2004.
For my presidency, I had identified 10 goals*1 which I valued as being of great importance for WBU and its future. I realized that WBU was in need of an operative strategy. Besides the internal and external goals in the plan, an overarching principle was actively to involve developing countries in the work of WBU from the very outset.
I realized that WBU, as an international body, should work mainly with other international bodies. The same applied to regions and National Members, which should only interact with regional or national authorities and organizations.
It was natural for me that under my leadership WBU should work closely with relevant United Nations bodies and agencies. I had learned about these major players after long and close work with different UN bodies – I had for eight years from 1993 worked with the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), through the WBU gender work for which I was responsible.
During my presidency, I considered it essential to form a strong team and work with the Officers and in particular with the Table Officers as closely as possible, similarly to the model we had created in the WBU Women's Committee. My role should be as coordinator and, of course, as the initiator for campaigns, proposals and decisions we could all stand behind. I had no aspiration to take decisions alone without the Officers being closely involved.
In order to prepare a structure for the work to be carried out in the coming years, the Table Officers met in the north of Sweden in January 2001, to set out proposals for a structure for committees and working groups to put before the Officers' Meeting in Madrid, in March. It was important that we should get a gender balanced committee structure and that the guidelines were clear and precise. We decided to appoint a link officer to each committee and working group as we had learned that this system had worked well in the European Blind Union (EBU). All committees should have a full regional representation.
It was one of my internal goals for WBU to establish two new committees, one on indigenous people and the other on children.
In March – April 2001, at the first Officers' Meeting in Madrid, we had a wide-ranging discussion.
As I had learned from my time as First Vice-President and representative of the Women's Committee, WBU needed agreed policies and position papers to ensure that we all worked in the same direction.
One of the first things we discussed was a policy for subsidies to guarantee that Officers from developing countries could participate in Officers' Meetings on terms equal to those applying to Officers who came from industrial countries. We also discussed the issue of a future independent Secretariat for WBU.
Further, at the Madrid Officers' Meeting, we discussed the WBU Foundation. We set up a framework for the Foundation, and the late Arne Husveg was appointed Chair. He was asked to draft a constitution.
We decided to write a position paper on strategies for fundraising, including operational structures, fundraising capability, etc.
Another very early decision was about the WBU website. It should be fully structured and operational no later then December 2001.
We confirmed the chairs and membership of committees, ad hoc committees and working groups. We also categorized the more than 50 Resolutions from the General Assembly in Melbourne and distributed them to the different committees for action.
It was decided to remove the Arabic language from all stationery and to keep just the three official languages on WBU letterheads. For font, Arial 14 should be used for texts.
At the second Officers' Meeting held in Bangkok on 24 September 2001, it was decided to recommend to the Executive that China, with its 10 delegates, should divide its delegation as follows: six for mainland China, two for Taiwan and two for Hong Kong.
It was decided that WBU should, through the President, remind DPI World Assembly in October 2002 that WBU does not accept DPI speaking on behalf of blind people.
Other important decisions taken at this productive meeting were to:
A memorable Executive meeting was held in Mumbai, India, 16 – 17 March 2002, hosted by Dr Vyas of the National Association of The Blind in India (NAB).
At this time, the work on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had started and it occupied much of my time! Despite this, WBU work went on and a whole range of decisions were made in Mumbai:
It was decided to appoint link persons from WBU Officers to formalize the relations between WBU and its International Members. It was further proposed that the President should follow up on the news of the bombing of a school for blind children in Palestine.
With regard to the Women's Committee the following points were agreed:
We discussed the establishment and development of the Pedro Zurita Youth Fund. The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted contributed US $5,000 to the fund, and Chris Kay had also allocated US $5,000 to the fund. Nominations from the Youth Committee were expected.
All committee Chairs should be invited to Executive meetings as observers and information should be circulated to all committees.
Position papers on the following subjects were presented:
A future independent functional Secretariat with its own office was discussed, as was how it could be funded. A paper had been circulated beforehand. It was also hoped that the presidency itself could be sponsored in a similar way.
This dream [of a WBU permanent office] has come true in 2007: it took us almost seven years to achieve it, and I am proud that the first discussions took place under my presidency.
The next Officers' Meeting took place in Havana, Cuba, 14 – 15 September 2002. We discussed among other things:
The Officers' Meeting, 13 – 14 February 2003, was hosted by the Treasurer in Auckland, New Zealand.
At this meeting we had a special session on indigenous people. The full committee received an impressive presentation by the representatives of the indigenous people of New Zealand. It was very informative, instructive and visionary, and pointed to a goal for future WBU activities.
The following were discussed and agreed on.
The Secretary General to put up on the website:
The Treasurer was asked:
Information about prestigious awards given to blind persons, by bodies outside WBU, was welcomed and would in the future be announced at Officers' Meetings.
Arne Husveg contributed US $24,000 as a personal gift to the running of the Secretariat function of WBU. I have to ask myself, and my colleagues, if thanks to Arne Husveg were ever given?
We were informed that CNIB have produced a book for parents with vision impaired children (to be dealt with by the Children's Committee) and information about it will be circulated to interested parties.
The third Executive Meeting was held 10-11 September 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
For levels of annual contribution to WBU, it was decided that we should use the UN statistical GMP when deciding on what category a country fits into. A GMP of up to US $4,000 is a developing country, from US $4,000-10,000 a transitional country and a GMP of US $10,000 or more an industrial country.
The Regional Presidents were asked to help with the difficult task of working with countries in arrears. The problem is that many of these organizations never answer any letters, and it is therefore impossible to know much about their situation.
Arne Husveg commented on the impressive development work that is ongoing within WBU. He offered US $10,000 for the purposes of establishing a working fund to promote this activity. The fund was to be known as the Arne Husveg Development Fund.
A motion was approved that a Roll of Honour should be maintained, commemorating all those who had received Honorary Life Membership, including those who had died as well as those who are living.
Poul Luneborg reported on the constitutional amendments and said that no radical changes were proposed. There were some technical rearrangements of articles and terminology.
A decision had been taken in the mid-50s by WCWB to have both an International Committee and a French Committee for the Louis Braille Museum, which makes the process a bit complicated. The Museum is still working with a deficit budget.
It was decided that Officers should have an obligation to follow up the Resolutions between Assemblies.
With regard to action, Officers should be bound to report back to General Assemblies or Executive Committee meetings. Adopted general policies should be the policies of the Union.
Regional Presidents should identify youth in their region in order to set up a discussion list for youth. Concerning the age limits for membership of Youth Committees, a discrepancy had occurred between WBU and the regions. The Executive decided to make the range 15-30 years of age.
To limit the age for Youth Committee membership had long been a wish on my part, and I was very pleased with this decision.
It was decided that the President should submit the request for making 4 January World Braille Day to UNESCO.
The next Officers' Meeting took place 2-5 May 2004 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and the following points were discussed and decided on:
The last Officers' Meeting during my presidency was held in Hurdal, Norway, 2-3 October 2004.
The meeting was intended to celebrate the work of our dear First Vice-President Arne Husveg, who planned to resign after the General Assembly in Cape Town. Sadly, Arne was unable to be with us as he was very ill in hospital. However, some of us got an opportunity to visit him in hospital and to present him with the gold Louis Braille Award from WBU. He was its first recipient. EBU had been the first union to present the award and had transferred the opportunity to WBU. Arne Husveg was very happy to receive the award from WBU, but he also had one which had been given to him by EBU earlier on!
Arne Husveg passed away before the Sixth General Assembly of WBU and only 10 days after our meeting in Hurdal. His memory is held in high esteem by all of us – for his unyielding fight for justice for blind persons, in particular those coming from developing economies. Personally, I admire Arne Husveg's philosophy and am still missing him and his strong inputs.
Unfortunately, one of our decisions taken in Hurdal gave rise to a strongly criticized issue at the General Assembly in Cape Town in December 2004. This, despite the clear guidelines in the Constitution which the Officers in Hurdal adhered to. The decision was:
It was, in my opinion, a very unfair criticism to suggest that a list up to date as at the opening day of the General Assembly should have been produced. The Constitution states it should be eight weeks before the General Assembly and the Officers had met this requirement. The criticism from Australia should not have been directed at the Officers, but rather at those delegates who complained of an unconstitutional decision at the General Assembly and who refused to listen to rules set by the General Assembly itself – and this without a previous request for a constitutional amendment.
It has not always been easy to be the first female leader of a very male-dominated organization, but I am proud to have been able to be part of this big, powerful and impressive organization and to have had the wonderful opportunity to lead it, with so many skilled, committed and remarkable members. It is a memory for life and it has made me very humble towards all my colleagues who gave me their trust, and hoped that I would move the situation for blind persons forward a little bit.
1 The ten goals I identified were as follows.
Internally:
Externally:
These goals are challenging and ambitious, but, with cooperation, a common effort and a dedicated purpose, we may together take WBU into the new millennium with the necessary strength and power which will "Change what it means to be blind!"
(Photo of William Rowland)
At the Sixth General Assembly, held in Cape Town, South Africa in December 2004, election results were as follows:
Sofia 1986 – and a meeting of the Committee on Rehabilitation, Training and Employment. It is three weeks after Chernobyl and my interpreter is orientating me to my hotel room.
"Is it okay to drink the water?", I ask.
"Yes", she assures me.
We leave the room and now she draws me close and speaks very softly:
"Do not ask questions in the room, they might be listening. And do not drink the water. I will bring you bottled water every day."
Later, in the Alexander Nevski cathedral, we each light a candle and make a wish: Roumiana that her country be freed from communism and I that South Africa be freed from apartheid.
It was that Committee that appointed Jean-Paul Herbecq of Belgium, Horst Stolper of Germany, and me – "the three blind doctors" – to write a position paper on employment. It was my first substantive piece of work for WBU.
Cairo 1992 – and David Blyth asks me to chair the first WBU Human Rights Committee. It would have been hard to find a task more rewarding. Persuading the Thai Government to change legislation barring blind students from entering university was our first challenge.
It was also in Cairo, on the fifth floor of my hotel, that I felt with my white cane for the elevator door and found just empty space. For me, all could have ended right there; but it didn't.
Pretoria 2003 – and a BBC report that 60 blind people were trapped behind Liberian rebel lines, abandoned by their care-givers. It took many days, working with Beyan Kota of the Christian Association of the Blind, to obtain the official help of the European Commission and of the First Lady of Liberia, and to bring the group to safety. But it was accomplished.
At the UN in Vienna – with Duncan Watson, lobbying for the ban on blinding laser weapons. That was surely one of WBU's finest achievements. And negotiating the text of the Standard Rules and, with Special Rapporteur Heather Butow, casually inserting the phrase "persons with disabilities" to replace "disabled persons" and all other formulations.
And so I could continue for all my allotted pages, but that would not do justice to the work and wisdom of the team of people who have laboured with me to take WBU to a higher level of excellence during our term of office.
To run for President in WBU is to run for political office. One has to wage a campaign and one has to issue a manifesto. While it is an exhilarating experience, it is at times extremely harrowing. One also learns lessons about loyalty and betrayal.
My strategy was to present a slate of strong candidates, at least for the top positions; and so it was that I invited Kua Cheng Hock of Singapore to be my running partner as First Vice-President and that I approached ONCE to nominate Enrique Perez for Secretary General.
But then a seeming setback, with Cheng Hock asserting that I lacked grass-roots support and expressing his intention to run against me. An even bigger challenge, though, was the wish of the incumbent President, Kicki Nordström, to run for a second term, something that would require a constitutional amendment.
Assured of ONCE backing, I was confident of major support from Latin America. From my home continent of Africa I was receiving mixed messages, with the exception of Dr Diarra Siaka who promised to deliver the votes of 22 Francophone countries. In Asia and Europe the situation was equally uncertain but with a number of countries of substantial voting strength pledging their allegiance, including India, France and the UK.
To me, the outcome seemed too close to call, with the North American vote potentially able to tip the balance in my favour. And so it was that my friend and advisor, Philip Bam, and I presented ourselves to Dr Marc Maurer, President of NFB, one late Friday afternoon in his office in Baltimore.
We were cordially received, but as the evening wore on and the whisky flowed, talk became more frank, with Mary Ellen Jernigan articulating the disillusionment felt with WBU. The organization had failed to inspire a worldwide movement of blind people, and with dismay I realized that a breakaway could not be ruled out.
I responded by saying that I shared some of the criticism, but that with NFB support, change was possible. I would work ceaselessly to make WBU an organization that instilled pride in blind people and which had something to offer to blind people everywhere. These, too, were sentiments later taken up in my election manifesto.
We parted on an uncertain note, but met again the next morning for breakfast. The NFB owed Cheng Hock a certain loyalty, but a telephonic consultation between Dr Maurer and Cheng Hock followed, after which the much hoped for promise of support was unequivocally given.
My manifesto, or Future Vision paper, was issued simultaneously in English, French and Spanish, and I quote here from the first page only to show its drift.
"I am honoured to be nominated by South Africa to serve as President of the World Blind Union. My knowledge and experience and full-time commitment are hereby pledged to WBU."
WBU must embody a powerful philosophy of blindness and demonstrate a clear understanding of its role as an organization. This means:
And so to Cape Town and the turbulent Sixth General Assembly in December 2004. Accreditation became a contentious process, but was ably resolved by Judge Ishmael Hussain, who had been deployed to the Assembly by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa. Excitement ran high and tempers flared as the constitutional amendment to allow a second presidential term was debated. However, the outcome was decisive, with 147 votes in favour and 162 against. A two-thirds majority would have been required to carry the amendment. And so it happened that I was unanimously elected President of WBU and to her credit, Kicki was the first to congratulate me.
This was followed by what will be for many their abiding memory from Cape Town, the address to the Assembly by President Thabo Mbeki. In my opinion, it must be rated as one of the finest speeches of his presidency, and the South Africans present rose to the occasion magnificently with singing and dancing and repeated cries of "Viva!" Somehow it was for me an affirmation of my African presidency.
As presidential candidate, one of my undertakings was to develop a strategic plan for WBU. While previous presidents over the past 20 years had all followed a work programme of sorts, it seemed to me that the implementation of a strategic plan against definite timelines would impose discipline and yield measurable results. It could also be a tool for renewal within the organization and provide a road map into the future for WBU.
Barely two months after the General Assembly, therefore, the WBU Officers gathered in Madrid to devise a strategic plan, with the facilitation of Marilyn and Chris Doyle, business consultants of international stature, funded most generously by Sightsavers International. In addition to the 12 Officers, I invited four individuals of outstanding ability and commitment to act as resource persons to my presidency, these being Christopher Friend, Geoff Gibbs, John Heilbrunn and Marc Maurer.
The essence of the strategic plan can, I think, best be communicated simply by quoting our eight strategic objectives, which were these:
The task of monitoring the strategic plan was assigned to Maryanne Diamond, our First Vice-President, a task she has performed with diligence and critical insight. I have been truly fortunate to have someone of the calibre of Maryanne to help translate document into action.
By resolution of the 2004 General Assembly, and as one of the priorities of the strategic plan, a permanent office had to be established as headquarters to WBU. The obvious first step was to choose the location, following a process seen to be transparent and fair. Maryanne Diamond was appointed to manage the project, with Geoff Gibbs as researcher.
Bids received from CNIB, RNIB and AfUB put the cities of Toronto, London and Nairobi in the running. Maryanne and Geoff visited all three venues and scored each bid on a three-point scale against some 20 criteria encompassing accessibility, cost, quality of life in the given city, and attitudes to gender and disability. Toronto came out ahead and in June 2006, via an historical telephone conference, the Officers duly authorized the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement with CNIB, in accordance with an Executive resolution adopted in Baltimore earlier in the year. The Canadian offer made generous provision for infrastructure and office space free of charge.
It is one thing to witness a technical process of assessment carried through to its logical conclusion and quite another to have to choose amongst admired friends in the appointment of a CEO; but this was the situation confronting Marc Maurer, Maryanne Diamond and me on 21 August 2006 in Toronto, when we interviewed the three shortlisted candidates. Phyllis Gordon, a former Human Rights Commissioner in Canada, was added to the panel as an independent assessor. Each of the candidates made a presentation and was then interviewed according to a set pattern. Each displayed necessary knowledge and personal passion, and one might even say affection for WBU. For me it was an agonizing choice, but the dye had to be cast, and it was in favour of Dr Penny Hartin. Penny had a proven track record in management, fundraising and development and was judged by the panel to be most immediately ready to transform the WBU administration.
While WBU has a demonstrable record of good governance, its policies have been developed piecemeal as the need has arisen. During our term of office a committee chaired by Dr Susan Spungin systematized and supplemented existing materials to produce a comprehensive procedures manual. A further initiative commenced during Kicki's presidency was the writing of a series of position papers in which WBU expresses itself on any number of issues such as poverty, rehabilitation, employment, inclusive education, voting methods, and many more. These papers have now been classified as internal or external documents and, as appropriate, posted on our website at www.worldblindunion.org. As a result of these painstaking efforts, the internal workings of WBU have been strengthened and its position on a range of matters of importance to blind and partially sighted people publicly stated.
However, to operate WBU needs not only rules, but money as well. For this, WBU has always depended on its membership dues, from which basic admin expenses, travel for meetings and a four-yearly contribution to the General Assembly are barely afforded. A Developmental Business Plan drawn up by Maryanne and Geoff envisages the appointment of a Resource Development Officer, but in the meantime the costs of a new office have had to be defrayed. It was for this purpose that I proposed a sponsorships programme.
I am of the view that the core funding of WBU must come from its members, with major agencies in the industrialized countries volunteering additional funds according to an agreed formula. The first to think along these lines was Dr Marc Maurer of NFB, who some years ago proposed the establishment of a "Challenge Fund" whereby a major pledge from the North America/Caribbean region had to be matched by other regions.
Under my scheme major agencies were approached to sponsor WBU at suggested levels designated Platinum, Gold, Silver and Loyalty and to be recognized by appropriate gestures from the side of WBU. I particularly wish to recognize here the four Platinum Sponsors who with their annual grants of $25,000 set the tone for the programme, these being NFB, ONCE, RNIB and Vision Australia. CNIB has also been rated a Platinum Sponsor because of a monetary grant plus a donation in kind of our office infrastructure. WBU itself contributes to the programme from internal resources. At the time of writing around $200,000 per annum are forthcoming from some 20 sponsors. Special acknowledgement must also be given to Vision Australia and the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind for providing the seed money for the research and travel required to prepare the way for the permanent office.
Although persons with low vision outnumber blind persons by well over three to one according to WHO statistics, they have been under-represented in the ranks of WBU. As a consequence, the issues of low vision have received scant attention. The problem that this posed was forcibly brought home to me during the Vision 2005 conference in London when I learned that there was talk of establishing a separate world body. That this would destroy our unity and weaken the voice of WBU I had no doubt.
At the 2000 General Assembly in Melbourne a resolution was adopted urging WBU to cooperate more closely with IAPB and the Vision 2020 initiative. While Christopher Friend of Sightsavers International is himself totally blind, he was the one to insist that the resolution not be allowed to gather dust. He was requested by the Executive to formulate a low vision policy and later invited by President Kicki Nordström to chair a Low Vision Working Group. He therefore seemed a natural choice to continue in this position during my presidency.
Chris set about his task with verve and enthusiasm, bringing to bear both the knowledge of professionals and the ideas of partially sighted people. He insisted that the entire WBU Executive attend a low vision training workshop and signalled that in due course he would be replaced as chair by someone with low vision. The unanimous choice fell on Jill Wagner of South Africa. It also happens that Penny Hartin, our CEO, is partially sighted.
The Working Group has delivered some practical results as well. Examples are its recommendation on print size and type for common use and its guidelines for PowerPoint presentations.
While I believe the strength of WBU to lie in its commonality, I nevertheless think it important that we be representative of people in their diverse situations. This is why I consider the advancement of the cause of low vision to be a major achievement of my presidency.
Another objective of my presidency has been to strengthen partnerships, thereby to bring greater cohesion to our development work and lay the ground for joint initiatives.
Our Development Committee has for a long time been key to organizational development in Africa and Asia, with the work supported by our Nordic partners dominating Committee proceedings to the exclusion of other programmes. My feeling therefore was that other players ought to be brought into the fold. Although to me this seemed quite logical, my proposal met with initial resistance, not to say suspicion, as the Committee struggled to find new direction. However, three years on, Sightsavers, Christian Blind Mission (CBM), ONCE and WBU's Institutional Development Program have all been added to the Committee membership, with the Norwegian and Danish associations still playing a highly valued role. My ultimate hope is that our development work will converge with that of our partners to the greater benefit of blind people. The Committee now operates under a clear mandate and the appointment of a Development Coordinator is in prospect.
Bilateral relations are also of importance. In furtherance of these relationships, our Secretary General, Enrique Perez, has negotiated a new Memorandum of Understanding with IBSA, while a cooperation agreement with the International Guide Dog Federation is anticipated. In the case of IAPB, WBU is granted a seat on its Board of Trustees, ex officio. But it is the Memorandum of Understanding signed with ICEVI that stands out in terms of its immense potential.
Realizing that after three decades of advocacy, less than 10 per cent of blind children are as yet at school in the majority of developing countries, ICEVI, in partnership with WBU and a range of other agencies, has devised a scheme to achieve Education For All Visually Impaired Children – the EFA-VI Programme – in targeted countries. An individual agreement is to be negotiated with each participating government and a coordinating national body put in place to monitor levels of enrolment, drop-out rates, access to support services and learning materials, and the school performance of blind children, as compared to other learners. This will comprise the "supply-side" to inclusive education, so to speak. It will be up to WBU to balance this with a "demand-side" response from organizations of blind people, parents and communities.
The Global Task Force has selected five focus countries for the introduction of the programme during the academic year 2007-08, these being Vietnam, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Vietnam we find an example of the spirit of collaboration that we hope to achieve globally. From the outset the Vietnam Blind Association (VBA) has been involved in the planning of the programme along with the Ministry of Education and Training and local and international NGOs. Its branches are helping to identify children not yet at school and to persuade parents and local authorities to have them enrolled. The VBA also helps young blind children to acquire basic skills in the reading and writing of Braille and is assisting in the production of the necessary Braille learning materials.
On 13 December 2006 the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It had taken five years to negotiate the 50 articles of the first human rights treaty of the 21st century and often the formulations of text had been controversial. Kicki Nordström had acted as our main spokesperson, while I exerted influence by networking with delegations and liaising with UN officials and Special Rapporteur Sheikha Hissa Al-Thani.
Every document of this kind is the product of compromises, but for WBU articles of particular concern, such as those on accessibility, information, rehabilitation and education, came out well. The provision on intellectual property was placed in the context of culture, whereas WBU had argued for it to be included under access to information, while the article on employment could have been more strongly stated.
From the very outset it was clearly understood that the CRPD would be based on other UN conventions and that no new rights would be permitted. The Convention does, however, restate and redefine these rights in relation to the requirements of people with disabilities.
Ambassador Don MacKay of New Zealand, who in the final stages chaired the ad hoc Committee that did the drafting, has described the Convention as the first human rights treaty of civil society, and certainly the eight organizations of the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and the 70 members of the broader-based International Disability Caucus (IDC) were triumphant in their celebrations.
Once ratified by 20 countries, the Convention attains the force of international law and becomes binding on committed governments. A treaty body will monitor the implementation of the Convention by governments, while an Optional Protocol will allow individuals to submit communications separate from those of their governments for the consideration of the treaty body. These could take the form of shadow reports or complaints.
The Convention will be a primary focus of WBU activities in the years ahead and hopefully the "progressive realization" of the Convention will assist us in our mission of changing what it means to be blind.
The best part of being WBU President is making country visits and attending events that gather national membership. In Japan I felt complimented by the capacity audience from diverse backgrounds assembled to hear my public lecture, not to mention the overwhelming hospitality of my hosts. I have high expectations of emergent Japanese technology, even though the GPS prediction of the time it would take to drive to Narita airport was out by one and a half hours. Probably it is an impossible calculation and, come to think of it, GPS technology is not Japanese anyway.
In India I was deeply moved by the dedication of blind people working full-time for their organization without remuneration and by the enthusiasm of teachers in the sparsest of village settings. When I appeared on radio, I was astonished to learn that my interview would be broadcast via 109 radio stations and listened to by tens of thousands of blind people.
In Russia I again felt complimented to be awarded the Medal of Merit of the All Russia Association of the Blind. Under the charismatic leadership of Alexander Neumyvakin, the Association is addressing employment needs by creating its own industries. At an after-party on the day of the 80th birthday celebration of the Association, each guest was expected to propose a toast and each time one had to down a shot of vodka. I was dismayed to learn that my name appeared 18th on the list. Luckily we were blind people together and I could sit out more rounds than I admitted to at the time.
It is my wish that everyone elected to leadership in the World Blind Union will at least once attend a convention of the National Federation of the Blind in the United States. I have done so twice and it is a life-changing experience to witness the fierce independence of delegates, listen to the emotive speeches, and be given an object lesson in activism. Anyone discriminating against any blind person anywhere in the US would do well to heed an NFB protest, unless prepared to end up in court. The latest issue being brought to public attention is the threat to blind pedestrians of "silent cars". It is a campaign I wholeheartedly endorse, as a blind road runner once the victim of such a vehicle. It is the spirit of federationism that makes of NFB an irresistible force, which WBU itself must become.
Another compliment was paid me by the ONCE leadership in the form of an invitation to attend the National Congress of Unidad Progresista, the dominant party within ONCE, which is organized entirely along political lines. The fiery rhetoric and exuberant pride in success will be for me enduring memories. The ONCE model of job creation, based on their own national lottery and commercial enterprises, has largely resolved the problem of unemployment for the blind and disabled people of Spain and is almost universally admired. In my opinion, there are lessons to be learned here and approaches that can be replicated elsewhere, including in my own country of South Africa.
WBU action does from time to time affect the lives of individual people, as with our human rights interventions. Such was the case in July 2007 when, for reasons of cost, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK refused to allow the National Health Service to prescribe Macugen or freely use Lucentis, the treatments of choice for wet age-related macular degeneration. For some this would have meant unavoidable blindness. The RNIB mounted a protest and WBU lodged its own letter of complaint. The most effective campaigns are those where objections are raised from multiple sources, as happened here – and the ruling was reversed.
A second recent example comes from Sudan. As is well known, some two million people have been displaced and another 200,000 killed through the conflict in Darfur. In such circumstances disabled people are particularly vulnerable, often being abandoned and being the last to be given relief. Realizing this, WBU and AfUB jointly registered their concerns with John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs. In his reply, John Holmes enumerated a series of measures being implemented by various agencies to address the situation of people with disabilities.
We are reassured, but will remain vigilant.
This book is published to mark the Silver Jubilee of the World Blind Union in 2009, which coincides with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, our greatest benefactor. It has been my privilege to write the last of nine chapters chronicling our history. It is a proud record, laying the foundation for even greater things to come.
May the silver years be followed by a golden time in which a well resourced WBU will be an irresistible force for progress and change and when being blind in the world means being whatever you choose to be.
(Photo of Sir John Wall)
Those responsible for drafting the Constitution of the United States of America are often praised for their foresight, which pre-empted difficult problems. They did not have to complete their work in such a hurry as did the founding fathers of WBU.
It is interesting to compare the US Constitution with the text agreed upon in Riyadh (see Appendix 1). As originally drafted, the US Constitution permitted an individual to hold the office of President for an unlimited number of terms. In the 20th century, this was thought unacceptable – hence the introduction of the Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified on 27 February 1951, which prohibited any person from being elected President more than twice.
In Riyadh, it was decided that a president could not be re-elected. This provision has stood the test of time. It was challenged in 2004. As it was enshrined in the Constitution, abolishing the rule would have involved an amendment to it, which would need a two-thirds majority vote. In the event, the proposal for the amendment did not achieve a simple majority, let alone the two-thirds vote it needed. It was defeated by 162 votes to 147.
It might be thought that the rule militated against the kind of continuity which would benefit an organization like WBU. One provision in the Constitution which assists continuity is the rule that the Immediate Past President is a Table Officer. This means that an individual elected to be President has eight years at the top table of WBU. Continuity has been helped, too, by what seems to be the development of a "cursus honorum" – a Treasurer becomes President, a First Vice-President succeeds to the presidency. This progression is not automatic – nor should it be – but it does mean that individuals are able to witness the work of predecessors at close quarters (See Appendix 3 for the full list of Table Officers for the six quadrennia).
I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing personally the six Presidents whose memoirs appear in this book. Each has, in his or her own way, made a unique and substantial contribution to the work of WBU. Through WBU, they have helped to improve the lives of vision impaired people throughout the world.
I must not forget Pedro Zurita. His contribution to the work of WBU over 14 years was enormous. I vividly remember his re-election in Cairo in 1992. It was greeted with a rhythmic chant, "Pedro! Clap, clap, clap!" which was enthusiastically repeated! It was a tragedy that he sustained such grave injuries in the accident in 1997. They prompted him to decide not to seek re-election – I think he felt that he could no longer maintain those almost impossibly high standards which he had always set himself. The term "perfectionist" must have been invented for him!
I can confidently say that WBU has a bright future. More and more talented activists are joining the ranks of our movement. Our principle of solidarity means that our brothers and sisters in developing countries are feeling less and less isolated. The setting up of the permanent office is an important step forward. There is still plenty to be done to achieve the objectives of our founding fathers – but progress so far has been considerable, and we may justly feel proud of it.
Under the name of World Blind Union (Union Mondiale Des Aveugles), here and otherwise referred to as the Union, an association is hereby formed in accordance with the Law of 1st July 1901, of the French Republic between the representatives of organizations of and for blind people on the initiative of the International Federation of the Blind and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind with the objective of more fully achieving in unity the aspirations of the two organizations.
The headquarters of the Union shall be located in Paris, France. They may be transferred to such place as may be decided by the Assembly.
Its duration shall be unlimited.
The purposes of the Union shall be to work for the prevention of blindness and towards the advancement of the well-being of blind and visually impaired people, otherwise referred to as "blind people", with the goal of equalization of opportunities and full participation in society, if necessary by special, legal or administrative measures; to strengthen the self-awareness of blind persons, to develop their personality, self-respect and sense of responsibility; and to provide an international forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of blindness.
The functions of the Union shall include the following:
a) the progressive improvement and modernization throughout the world of public policies and practices governing the education, health, welfare, social security, rehabilitation, employment, sports and recreation of blind people;
b) the promotion of the creation and development of national organizations of blind people and organizations providing services to blind people where these do not exist;
c) the provision for the encouragement of the exchange of information and experience between all organizations whose activities relate to the goals of the Union;
d) the dissemination of accurate information and the promotion of enlightened attitudes on the part of the people of the world towards blind people;
e) the encouragement, coordination and conduct of research and studies in all fields of blindness, including its prevention;
f) the provision, promotion and coordination of technical and material assistance in furtherance of the aims of the Union in areas where such help is required;
g) to solicit the support of national governments, national and international organizations everywhere to support programmes and policies of the Union and of organizations of and for blind people, and to assist and to advise those bodies in their implementation;
h) to take any other measures necessary or conducive to the achievement of the purposes of the Union.
a) Blind – Throughout this Constitution the term "blind" means blind and visually impaired. National Members shall be entitled by this Constitution to use their own national definition of blindness.
b) Organizations of blind people – In order to be defined as a recognized organization of blind people, the organization should be representative of the blind of that country, having a substantial number of members with a majority of its membership consisting of blind persons, ordinarily paying a membership fee and having a governing body with a majority of blind persons, elected by the members at regular intervals. All other organizations which do not qualify to be organizations of blind people shall in this Constitution be regarded as organizations for blind people.
The Union is a non-governmental and non-profit making organization.
The Union shall work towards the establishment and maintenance of official relations with the United Nations and its specialized agencies and organizations, improved cooperation with organizations having aims related to those of the Union, in particular with the International Council for Education of the Visually Handicapped, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the International Blind Sports Association and with any other relevant organizations.
Membership of the Union shall be open to all countries of the world and shall comprise the following categories:
a) National Members – those countries which have been admitted to membership by the Executive and which pay the membership fee.
b) Grouped Members – Where in a region there are countries each with a general population not exceeding two million and which wish to combine their representation in the Union, they may, with the consent of the Executive and upon payment of the membership fee, be accorded the status of grouped members with a combined representation and votes to which their aggregate population entitles them.
c) Special Members – those countries which have been admitted with the approval of the Executive to membership as special members and which pay the membership fee. Special members shall be those countries where there is no national organization of blind people. Each special member shall be expected actively to promote the establishment of a national organization of blind people in its country, and its membership shall be regularly reviewed by the General Assembly.
d) International Members – those international organizations invited to become international members and which pay the membership fee. To qualify for such membership, the organization shall be one which promotes and coordinates substantial international programmes of activities for the benefit of blind people or for the prevention of blindness.
e) Associate Members – any person, organization or foundation approved by the national delegation and paying the membership fee.
f) Honorary Life Members – those persons deemed to have rendered long and outstanding international service to blind people or the prevention of blindness may, on the recommendation of the national delegation, be elected by the Assembly as honorary life members of the Union.
g) Sponsoring Members – Upon payment of an annual membership fee to be determined from time to time by the Executive, any profit and non-profit making organization or foundation may be admitted as a sponsoring member of the Union. A representative of a sponsoring member may be eligible to serve on Committees other than the Executive and Finance Committees in a consultative capacity only.
h) Where an application for membership is received from a dependent territory which apart from its dependent status is otherwise qualified for membership, the Assembly in consultation with the national member concerned may admit that territory to whichever category of membership it considers appropriate upon payment of the appropriate membership fee.
Application for membership of the Union shall be-made to and approved by the Executive. Application for membership as a dependent territory shall be made to and be approved by the Assembly. Honorary life members shall be elected by the Assembly.
a) The amounts of the membership fees shall be determined by the Assembly on the recommendation of the Executive.
b) The amounts of membership fees may be different for different categories of membership and may differ within categories. The criteria by which such fees shall be determined shall be laid down by the Assembly on the recommendation of the Executive.
c) Part of the income shall be set aside for offering financial assistance to national delegates, in an effort to ensure that at least one delegate from each country is present at the Assembly. In countries which are national members the assistance should be offered to delegates coming from organizations of blind people.
a) The national, grouped, special, international and honorary life members shall constitute the General Assembly, here and otherwise referred to as the Assembly.
b) The associate and sponsoring members may attend the Assembly in a consultative capacity.
c) The President of the Union may invite observers to be present at the Assembly with the approval of their national delegations.
d) Delegates to the Assembly shall consist of persons whose names are on the Secretary General's membership list two months prior to the opening of the Assembly, except in cases of illness or emergency or admission of new members to the Union. A delegate unable to attend a meeting of the Assembly may give his proxy to another delegate from the same country. Written notice of such a proxy must ordinarily be given to the Secretary General before the meeting at which it will be exercised. In appropriate cases, the credentials committee may propose variations to this procedure. Any national member may question the validity of a proxy given by one of its delegates by written communication to the Secretary General, whereupon the credentials committee shall arbitrate on the matter, having regard to the aim of this Constitution to ensure equal participation by organizations of blind people in the affairs of the Union.
a) There may be ordinary or extraordinary meetings of the Assembly. Ordinary meetings shall be held every four years, but extraordinary meetings may be convened at any time by the President in exceptional circumstances.
b) Delegates shall be responsible for their own travel and maintenance expenses when attending all Assembly meetings.
The Assembly shall determine the general policies to be adopted by the Union towards achieving its purposes. Its functions shall include the following:
a) It shall consider and decide upon all recommendations submitted by the Executive.
b) It shall receive and consider the report of the Executive on the Executive's work and on the work of the committees.
c) It shall consider the Treasurer's report and determine the budget of the Union for the next four years.
d) It shall determine the rate of membership fees on the recommendation of the Executive.
e) It shall elect the President, Vice-President, Secretary General, and Treasurer of the Union, and shall receive the notification of the elections of the other members of the Executive.
f) It shall consider and decide upon any proposals from members of the Union. Such proposals should ordinarily be presented to the Secretary General three months prior to the General Assembly and copies thereof should be circulated by him to all members one month prior to the Assembly.
g) It shall consider and decide upon proposals to amend the Constitution of the Union.
h) It shall consider recommendations by the Executive pertaining to membership of the Union of honorary life members.
i) It shall take any other measures necessary or conducive to achieve the purposes of the Union.
a) National, grouped, special, international and honorary life members shall each be entitled to one vote per delegate at the Assembly. Associate and sponsoring members shall have the right to speak, but shall not be entitled to vote.
b) Each national member shall be entitled to two delegates to the Assembly if its population is below 20 million people, four delegates if its population is between 20 and 40 million people, and six delegates if its population is above 40 million people.
c) Each special member shall be entitled to one-half of the delegates to the Assembly available to a national member with the same population.
d) Each international member shall be entitled to one delegate to the Assembly.
e) Each associate member and sponsoring member shall be entitled to one representative to Assembly meetings.
f) All questions shall be decided by a simple majority vote except for constitutional amendments and proposals for the dissolution of the Union.
g) Abstentions shall always be ignored when counting votes.
h) Voting may be by acclamation (viva voce), by roll call, by show of hands, or, if twenty per cent or more of the delegates present so demand, by secret ballot. At elections when there is more than one candidate, voting shall always be by secret ballot.
i) The Executive may invoke a postal ballot between Assemblies of all registered voting delegates to the Assembly to resolve questions which it believes are outside its mandate or beyond its capacity to decide.
j) A quorum shall consist of a majority of members with voting rights.
a) At least one-half of the delegates in each national member's delegation to the Assembly shall represent recognized national organizations of blind people.
b) At least one-half of the delegates in each national member's delegation present at the Assembly must be representative of organizations of blind people unless special circumstances satisfactory to the Credentials Committee prevent that from happening.
c) Where a coordinating organization or mechanism representing national organizations of blind people and agencies providing services to them does not exist in a country, its delegates shall be chosen after consultation between recognized national organizations of blind people and agencies providing services to then.
d) If a country cannot agree on whether an organization should be regarded as a recognized national organization of blind people, or on the composition of its Delegation to the Assembly, it should request the assistance of the regional president and/or the Secretary General of the Union.
e) All delegates shall hold responsible positions in the direction or administration of organizations of blind people or agencies providing services to them.
a) The Executive Committee, here and otherwise referred to as the Executive, shall be composed of the Officers of the Union who shall, with the exception of regional presidents, be elected by the Assembly, three representatives elected by each region, and one representative or his alternate from among the international members chosen by them at the tine of the Assembly.
b) The President, Vice-President, Secretary General, Treasurer, the representative of the international members and the regional representatives shall serve as members of the Executive for a period of four years, starting at the close of one Assembly and finishing at the close of the next Assembly. The regional presidents shall serve as officers until replaced by their successors.
c) The President may invite persons with special expertise to be present at the Executive meetings from time to time. The number of such persons shall not exceed three at any given time.
d) If a vacancy occurs among the officers elected by the Assembly, it shall be filled by the Executive, if necessary, by postal ballot. If a casual vacancy occurs on the Executive among the regional representatives, it shall be filled by the appropriate region.
a) The Executive shall be the principal administrative organ of the Union.
b) The Executive shall have power of decision and be directly responsible to the Assembly for interpreting and carrying out in detail the general policies agreed upon by the Assembly and for the administration, management and control of the affairs and property of the Union. In so doing, it shall have authority to take all necessary action not specifically reserved to the Assembly.
c) The Executive shall supervise the work of the officers of the Union and shall have the right at all times to ask for an account of their actions.
a) Each member of the Executive is entitled to one vote.
b) In the event of a tied vote, the President may exercise a casting vote.
c) All decisions of the Executive shall be decided by simple majority of the votes cast.
a) Meetings of the Executive shall be ordinary or extraordinary. Extraordinary meetings may be called at any time by the President or, if demanded by the majority of the Executive. Ordinary meetings of the Executive shall be held concurrently with those of the Assembly with further meetings being held at least once every two years.
b) The travel and maintenance costs of Executive members and guides of blind members when attending meetings of the Executive may be met in whole or part, subject to funds being available at the time, by the Union for those members who apply.
c) A quorum for Executive meetings shall be the majority of the Executive.
d) The President may conduct a postal ballot of all the Executive members whenever, in his opinion, a solution is needed for an urgent issue which cannot wait until the next meeting of the Executive.
a) The officers of the Union shall be the President, the Vice-President, the Immediate Past President, the Treasurer and the Secretary General and seven Regional Presidents.
b) The officers, except the Regional Presidents, shall not hold territorial status during their terms of office and, if they were delegates to the Assembly which elected them, their seats may be filled in the normal way.
c) Apart from the President, all officers are eligible for re-election.
The officers shall meet whenever the President deems necessary or when demanded by a majority of their number. They shall, perform those duties which are not the specific responsibility of the Assembly or the Executive or which are delegated to them by those bodies.
a) The officers shall take decisions on matters of internal administration, carry out financial duties in accordance with decisions made by the Assembly or Executive, appoint ad hoc committees and working groups to implement decisions made by the Assembly and the Executive and take action as may be needed between Executive meetings.
b) The President should preside over the meetings of the Assembly, the Executive and the officers and shall represent the Union. The President shall hold office for a period of one term and the succeeding President must come from another region.
c) The Treasurer and the Secretary General shall, under the direction of the Executive and the President, perform the duties properly pertaining to those offices.
a) The members of the World Blind Union shall be formed initially into seven geographical regional groups, in order to serve as bridges between the national members and the Union at world level and to further the work of the Union at regional level. The number and composition of such regional groups shall be kept under constant review by the Assembly,
b) The geographical regions shall initially be Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Latin America, and East Asia/Pacific. The countries to be included in each region shall be determined by the Executive – in consultation with the regions.
c) These regions shall have the same objectives as the World Blind Union, taking into account the interests of the organizations of and for the blind, but they shall have autonomy at the regional level on regional issues.
The Executive shall appoint a Finance Committee from among its members to carry out specific financial duties, and may appoint any other committees as it deems appropriate to carry out such duties as it may delegate to them. A list of such committees shall from time to time be available. Standing Committees may, subject to the approval of the President, create sub-committees to cover specific fields within the broader scope of the committee's work, or ad hoc working groups to deal with particular tasks assigned to them.
All committees shall maintain regular contact with the Executive and the Secretary General and must report regularly to the Assembly and the Executive about their activities. Sub-committees and ad hoc working groups shall report to their standing committees. The Executive shall regularly review the structure and functioning of its committees.
The financial year of the Union shall run from the 1st January to the 31st December.
Membership fees shall be payable within the first half of the year. A member whose annual fee has not been paid during the financial year may be declared by the officers to have forfeited membership. In the event of the officers making such an order, the member shall have a right of appeal to the Executive.
It shall be the duty of the Executive at all times to keep the expenses of the Union strictly within its income and reserves. Savings made on the annual budget shall constitute a reserve which shall be banked and/or invested.
a) The Executive shall ensure that proper financial records are kept and that accepted accounting practices are followed. Account books and all supporting documents shall be held at the office of the Treasurer and shall be available for inspection by the officers and by members of the Executive.
b) All financial records must be audited each year by a qualified auditor, following which the audit certificate shall be tabled at the next officers' meeting and then presented to the Executive.
c) A statement showing the financial position of the Union shall be published each year and a copy shall be sent to all members within six months of the end of each financial year.
a) This Constitution may be amended at any Assembly meeting, provided always that no fewer than two-thirds of the votes cast are in favour of the proposed amendment.
b) The Executive shall place before the Assembly any amendment proposed in writing by seven or more delegates.
c) Any proposal for a constitutional amendment must be in the hands of the Secretary General three months before the date of the meeting at which it is to be discussed. The exact text of any such amendment must be circulated to all voting members at least one month before the meeting at which it shall be discussed.
a) If at any time a dissolution of the Union should prove necessary or desirable, this may be done according to the procedures laid down for amendments to this Constitution except that such proceedings must be initiated by the Executive or by 15 national members of the Union.
b) In the event of dissolution, any funds or other assets owned by the Union shall be liquidated in accordance with the relevant law and the wishes expressed by the Assembly.
The Immediate Past Presidents of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind and the International Federation of the Blind shall both be Officers and members of the Executive of the World Blind Union for the first period.
The present Honorary Life Members of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind and the International Federation of the Blind are recognized as Honorary Life Members of the World Blind Union.
The membership of Sponsoring Members of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind and the International Federation of the Blind shall be transferred to the World Blind Union if they so wish.
The present special relationship which exists between the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind and the International Council for Education of the Visually Handicapped, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and the International Blind Sports Association shall be continued by the World Blind Union.
Registered Office:
World Blind Union
58 Avenue Bosquet, 75007 Paris-France
Tel. 555.67.54
1. Mr President, Distinguished Delegates – the World Blind Union (WBU) is deeply appreciative of the opportunity you have given us to make a brief presentation on behalf of the world's 35 million blind people during these most important Plenary Sessions you are holding to highlight disability issues at the conclusion of the UN Decade of Disabled Persons, and to plan future action in the field of disability beyond the end of the Decade.
2. The World Blind Union, which was formed in 1984 upon the dissolution and merger of two predecessor organizations with a combined history going back to 1949, has a current membership of 140 countries divided into seven geographical regions worldwide. Almost every organization of blind people and almost every national organization providing services for blind people is affiliated to our movement which seeks to represent the authentic voice of blind people wherever that voice needs to be heard today. In addition to the prevention of blindness, our objectives are, by means of the equalization of opportunities in the fields of education, rehabilitation, training and employment, to promote the greater independence of blind people and our complete integration into society with the full rights and duties of citizenship.
3. Mr President – of the 35 million blind people in the world (and that number is increasing rapidly by reason of famine, disease and war), 80 per cent live in developing countries. Only about 5 per cent of them receive either education or rehabilitation services. If you are a blind woman, your position is even worse. For the most part, our people in the developing world live in abject poverty. They are scourged by pestilence and ravaged by wars which are none of their making. Their first priority is a square meal, shelter and basic health care. Their predicament is such that it calls for urgent action by this organization to ensure that in all its development and relief programmes there is a special component with special finance adequately to provide for the needs of persons with a disability. Of course, the real tragedy is that 80% of this blindness in developing countries is either preventable or curable.
4. From WBU's perspective, although there have been some tangible gains, such as heightened public awareness, the development of more organizations of disabled people and the ILO Convention No. 159, to name but three, overall the Decade has been a disappointment. The peace dividend never materialized. Instead, the demands made upon the United Nations and its agencies, particularly as regards peace keeping and famine relief, as well as in the fields of crime prevention, and drug trafficking, have inevitably meant that its resources (both human and financial) have been ever more thinly spread and the issue of disability has drifted further and further down the agenda, so that it is in danger of being relegated to the second division.
5. Having said that, and although we are not in favour of a second Decade because we think a stronger impetus is required, we firmly believe that the United Nations has a very important role to play in the field of disability: by giving moral leadership to member states; by stimulating in them the political will to give disability issues higher priority and to allocate increased resources at national and international levels; as well as by supporting special initiatives to impart momentum to its own agreed disability policies.
6. Hopefully, by the end of your 48th Session next year, those policies will be enshrined in three documents: the World Programme of Action (still as valid today as when it was written); the long-term strategy more narrowly focused and more strictly time-limited than the World Programme of Action, designed to achieve a "society for all" by the early years of the 21st century; and the International Standard Rules to promote Equalization of Opportunities for Disabled Persons. The last two documents are the means of implementing the World Programme of Action. In addition, we now have the ministerial initiative from Montreal, which is greatly to be welcomed provided input into its mechanism by organizations of disabled persons can be ensured and provided its objectives are clearly expressed to be in support of the United Nations and the implementation of the World Programme of Action.
7. The United Nations already has its policies and they are good policies. What is urgently required now is a properly structured monitoring system to encourage member states to implement those policies. Any such system will need to be at an appropriately high level within the United Nations system; it will need to include representatives nominated by international organizations of disabled people and it will need to be properly resourced. At its last meeting the Working Group elaborating the Standard Rules proposed a monitoring system to work in conjunction with the Commission for Social Development which has much to recommend it, and it is to be hoped their proposal will be accepted by the Commission and that it is subsequently extended to cover the monitoring of the long-term strategy and even the World Programme of Action itself.
8. The best instrument the UN has at its disposal to implement its disability policies is organizations of disabled people. Your policy documents are littered with references to cooperation and consultation with such organizations which have greatly expanded during the Decade. There has been significantly increased activity on the part of single-disability organizations which exist to look after the particular needs of their own membership groups; in the case of blind people these are mobility, daily living skills and communication needs. Of course, we all have common interests on which we can and do cooperate. What is now needed is that the United Nations should initiate a dialogue to see if the consultative mechanism with our organizations can be further improved. What is required, it seems to me, is a new umbrella group – an international advisory group composed of nominated representatives from existing organizations – both to bring us as organizations closer together and to provide a wider and better liaison with the United Nations.
9. Mr President – the challenge ahead is to accord disability issues the highest possible priority in development planning and to devote the finance and political commitment necessary to ensure greater progress in the years ahead. These are not my words. They are the words of the UN Under-Secretary General for Public Affairs speaking at Independence '92 in Vancouver, in April this year. I can do no better than adopt them. The conclusion of the Decade gives us all the opportunity to reaffirm our political commitment to the objectives of the World Programme of Action supported by the necessary financial resources and institutional arrangements. As disabled people, we are not asking for the moon – we are not even asking to be singled out for special treatment – we simply ask to be treated exactly like other citizens and to get our fair share. We earnestly hope that the United Nations will not let us down.
Mr President, Distinguished Delegates – thank you for your attention.
Duncan Watson
President, World Blind Union
New York, 12 October 1992
Elected at General Assembly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
President: Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ghanim (Saudi Arabia)
Vice-President: Col Boris Zimin (Soviet Union)
Treasurer: Leonard de Wulf (Belgium)
Secretary General: Anders Arnör (Sweden) (died, November 1985)
Pedro Zurita (Spain), October 1986 onwards
Elected at General Assembly in Madrid, Spain
President: Duncan Watson (United Kingdom)
Vice-President: Enrique Elissalde (Uruguay)
Treasurer: Euclid Herie (Canada)
Secretary General: Pedro Zurita (Spain)
Elected at General Assembly in Cairo, Egypt
President: David Blyth (Australia)
Vice-President: Rodolfo Cattani (Italy)
Treasurer: Euclid Herie (Canada)
Secretary General: Pedro Zurita (Spain)
Elected at General Assembly in Toronto, Canada
President: Euclid Herie (Canada)
First Vice-President: Kicki Nordström (Sweden)
Second Vice-President: William Rowland (South Africa)
Treasurer: Geoffrey Gibbs (New Zealand)
Secretary General: Pedro Zurita (Spain)
Elected at General Assembly in Melbourne, Australia
President: Kicki Nordström (Sweden)
First Vice-President: Arne Husveg (Norway)
Second Vice-President: William Rowland (South Africa)
Treasurer: Geoffrey Gibbs (New Zealand)
Secretary General: Enrique Sanz (Spain)
Elected at General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa
President: William Rowland (South Africa)
First Vice-President: Maryanne Diamond (Australia)
Second Vice-President: Gloria Peniza (Venezuela)
Treasurer: Susan Spungin (USA)
Secretary General: Enrique Perez (Spain)
AfUB - African Union of the Blind
CBM - Christian Blind Mission
CBR - Community based rehabilitation
CCB - Caribbean Council for the Blind
CEO - Chief Executive Officer
CNIB - Canadian National Institute for the Blind
CRPD - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
CSW - Commission on the Status of Women
DAISY - Digital Accessible Information System
DPI - Disabled Peoples' International
EFA-VI - Education for All Visually Impaired Children
EBU - European Blind Union
GMP - Good Manufacturing Practice
GPS - Global Positioning System
IAPB - International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
IATA - International Air Transport Association
IBSA - International Blind Sports Association
ICEVH - International Council for Education of the Visually Handicapped
ICEVI - International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment
IDA - International Disability Alliance
IDC - International Disability Caucus
IFB - International Federation of the Blind
IFGDSB - International Federation of Guide Dog Schools for the Blind
IFLA - International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
ILO - International Labour Organization
ILSMH - International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap
L'INJA - L'Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles
NAB - National Association for the Blind of India
NABP - Norwegian Association of Blind and Partially Sighted People
NFB - National Federation of the Blind
NFBCA - National Federation of Blind Citizens of Australia
NGO - Non-Governmental Organization
OAU - Organization of African Unity
ONCE - Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles/Spanish National Organization of the Blind
PBU - Philippine Blind Union
RI - Rehabilitation International
RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People
UABE - Universal Association of Blind Esperantists
UFA - L'Union Francophone des Aveugles
ULAC - Latin American Blind Union
UN - United Nations
UNAT - Union of the Blind in Tunisia
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund
UNSR - United Nations Standard Rules
UNUM - United Nations Units of Money
UPU - Universal Postal Union
VBA - Vietnam Blind Association
WBU - World Blind Union
WCWB - World Council for the Welfare of the Blind
WFD - World Federation of the Deaf
WHO - World Health Organization
WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization
(Photo of a woman putting a CD Rom into a DAISY player)
Changing what it means to be blind is a multimedia book accessible to everyone - it contains print, DAISY audio, Braille, Clear Print PDF and text files all-in-one. (see end of document for instructions)
It stands for "Digital Accessible Information SYstem" and is a multimedia format, which can be played on a stand-alone DAISY player, or by using DAISY software on a PC. DAISY players can also play standard audio CDs.
DAISY is a trademark of the DAISY consortium. For information about DAISY, visit www.daisy.org
The DAISY software enables the user to find chapters, sections, sub-sections or specific pages without difficulty. Users can also bookmark pages to come back to at a later date.
DAISY CDs can store up to 22 hours of audio - so one CD can do a job that previously had to be done by several cassette tapes or standard audio CDs.
The multimedia CD contains a Braille file to produce your own Braille print out at home.
It also contains a ASCII text file, which you can read using screen magnification software or you can change the size and type of the font.
Lastly, it includes a Clear Print PDF file, which you can read using screen magnification software.
With the CD Rom, you can read and navigate this book using any combination of your eyes, ears and fingers.
There are five formats available: DAISY, Braille, Clear Print PDF, HTML and ASCII:
Please note that copying of files is not permitted.