From the Editor: Francis Gurry was the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization from 2008 to 2020. Here are his remarks:
Dear Family of Scott LaBarre,
Dear Mark Riccobono,
Dear Friends,
It is a privilege for me to join you and to be able to say a few words on the occasion of the ceremony to celebrate and to honor the life of a great person, Scott LaBarre.
I came to know Scott in my capacity as director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a post from which I retired in September 2020. During my time as director general, the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled was successfully concluded in 2013 in, of course, Marrakesh. The Marrakesh Treaty is the most successful example of a multilateral treaty concluded in the 140-year history of the World Intellectual Property Organization and its predecessors, success being measured by the speed of take-up of the treaty around the world through the number of ratifications. There are now some ninety-one contracting parties and well over one hundred countries covered by the ratifications of those ninety-one contracting parties.
Scott LaBarre was an eloquent, persuasive, and effective advocate for a better deal for visually impaired persons. His influence resounded not just in the formal meetings, where his formal skills as an advocate were apparent, but also in the innumerable informal meetings that he had seeking to persuade those who were not necessarily convinced of the need for the treaty of the fundamental justice of bringing a successful conclusion to the Marrakesh Treaty.
I should also add that the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), together with the World Blind Union (WBU), were wonderful and highly skilled and effective advocates for the Marrakesh Treaty and for its subsequent ratification by the Congress of the United States of America. The treaty would not have been concluded successfully, in my view, nor subsequently ratified by the United States, without the NFB, the WBU, and outstanding negotiators like Scott.
We also formed at WIPO the Accessible Books Consortium, which is a partnership of all the elements involved in the value chain of book publishing—authors, publishers, rights-owning or managing organizations, libraries, standards organizations—together with the World Blind Union and other stakeholders from the visually impaired community. I am very pleased to say that the Accessible Books Consortium has brought together, thanks to its various constituents, some 720,000 works in eighty languages that are available in accessible formats throughout the world. Scott LaBarre sat on the Board of Directors of the Accessible Books Consortium. He was, as always, a highly skilled, highly knowledgeable, solid and influential negotiator and advisor, respected by all.
Scott, your contribution to a better world, a world that recognizes and gives expression to the fundamental rights of visually impaired persons, was immense. You were a quiet but immensely strong and effective hero.
Farewell Scott, you remain in our hearts.