128 countries are now signed up to the Marrakesh Treaty, which removes unnecessary copyright barriers to the creation of and access to books and other materials in accessible formats for people with print disabilities. But how far have they aligned their national laws with the Treaty’s goals?
(14 Feb 2026) For almost eight years, IFLA has produced updates on the status of Marrakesh Treaty implementation in national laws around the world, drawing on the contributions of members of our Section on Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities and Advisory Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters.
The Treaty was agreed in Marrakesh 2013, and is a landmark in terms of its focus on the interests of users, namely persons with print disabilities – blindness, partial sightedness, and other conditions that make it impossible to use written books and other materials in the same way as others.
It addresses the market failure created by the existing international copyright system, which left the responsibility to decide whether to convert books and other materials into accessible formats up to publishers and other rightholders. This situation also meant there was no legal certainty for the sharing of such materials across borders.
Read the report online here.
