English: African Leadership on Copyright and the Public Interest

In international and domestic fora, African policy-makers are promoting legal and policy reform to ensure that copyright promotes the public interest. These reforms include measures to ensure both that creators are fairly compensated and that users can research, educate, and innovate to the benefit of the public at large. What reforms are African policy-makers promoting internationally at WIPO and domestically that promote the interests of researchers, the libraries and other institutions that serve them, and their audiences including students, other researchers, and the public at large.

Chair: Dr. Viviana Muñoz-Tellez, Programme Coordinator, South Centre,Geneva

Georges-Rémi Namekong, Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of the African Union in Geneva

Prof. Chidi Oguamanam, Research Chair in Sustainability Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance, University of Ottawa

Dr. John Asein, Director General, Nigerian Copyright Commission

Mrs Sharon Chahale Wata, Deputy Director - Training & Research, Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO)

Elizabeth Nyagura, Deputy Director General, Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (ZIPO)

Discussants: Professor Joseph Fometeu, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon Jace Nair, CEO BlindSA

More on the Right to Research in Africa Conference:

How can Africa predict and respond to the next pandemic? How do we model the impact of climate change on agriculture? How can we ensure access to accurate news and research in all African languages? Can we digitize our heritage to preserve it for future generations? Can we use AI to build a better future for Africa?

Answering these questions requires the very latest computational research methods. We need to mine information from research sources and databases all over the world. Do African researchers have access to the data they need? Does copyright law help or hinder the Right to Research?

African researchers, legal experts, policy makers, activists and intergovernmental organisations discuss these important topics.