Here is the full text of this message, which was read by the Minister of Communication, Government Spokesperson, Mustapha El Khalfi. "Praise be to God, Prayer and peace upon the Prophet, his family and his companions.

Excellencies, Ladies

and Gentlemen,

It is a source of joy for Us that Morocco is hosting this diplomatic conference of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). We are pleased, on this occasion, to welcome our guests from the member states of this prestigious organisation, the officials of WIPO, and the representatives of regional and international organisations, as well as the various actors of civil society and the private sector. We welcome your choice to hold this WIPO Diplomatic Conference for the first time in a country of the South, Arab and African, and more precisely in Marrakech, which has hosted so many important international conferences. We are also sensitive to this because this Conference is of even greater importance as it is dedicated to a noble objective, namely the adoption of an international Treaty on limitations and exceptions aimed at facilitating access for the visually impaired and persons with print disabilities to published works protected by copyright.

On this occasion, We wish to pay tribute to the Director General of WIPO, Mr. Francis Gurry, for the great efforts and precious initiatives he undertakes in order to strengthen international action in the field of intellectual property, and to ensure it more balance and effectiveness. We extend our warm thanks to all those who have contributed or are still contributing to doing justice to a whole segment of the visually impaired around the world. Our thanks also go to the governments and stakeholders, from countries of the North as well as countries of the South, who are meeting today in Marrakech to give substance to this noble purpose. Excellencies, Ladies, Gentlemen,

You are not unaware that more than 300 million people are visually impaired in the world, of whom 45 million, according to WHO statistics, are blind, and their number risks doubling by 2020. Hence the importance of your conference and the relevance of the timing of the adoption of the Marrakech Treaty. Indeed, we expect from it the first international text in the annals of WIPO that provides for exceptional exceptions and limitations to copyright. It will be the first of its kind in the legal-doctrinal framework relating to copyright.

We therefore invite you to measure the scope of the legitimate hopes and expectations linked to the Treaty, which must be apprehended from the perspective of human rights. Indeed, the blind and visually impaired, victims of their handicap and their inability to fully enjoy their right of access to the various multidisciplinary works protected, will remain deprived of their right to equality in this field. The preservation of their human dignity imperatively requires the need to transcend their handicap and contribute to their personal fulfilment.

We have no doubt that the expected adoption of the international Treaty will go down in history as one of the most radiant milestones in the history of WIPO, not only because it will represent a new civilised legislation, but also because of its noble human scope which clearly reflects our common will to make the authentic values of mutual aid and human solidarity prevail.

In this regard, we welcome the legal-moral approach in which this historic initiative is inscribed. We keep in mind the sublime values that preside over the spirit of this treaty. They are based on the principles of non-discrimination, equal opportunities, and integration, as well as the guarantee of full and effective participation of the disabled, not only as stakeholders in social life, but also as major actors in the economic development effort of their respective countries.

Indeed, according to statistics from international organisations, visual impairment is largely linked to unfavourable social and economic situations. 90% of the blind in the world are in developing countries, including a large majority on the African continent. Hence the imperative to do everything possible to remove the obstacles to their integration into sustainable development projects, so that they benefit from the same rights as others regarding access to knowledge and information.

This Treaty of exceptions is more than an act of international solidarity; it is an innovative instrument in the framework of North-South and South-South cooperation. Moreover, it is likely to make these visually impaired people citizens equal in rights and actors contributing, in a concrete way, to the development of their country, transcending their handicaps and working for their own fulfilment.

The consensus on the Marrakech Treaty, which We call for, will certainly allow for repairing the oversight committed during the definition of the Millennium Development Goals, and repaired in 2010 by the Ministerial Declaration on the implementation of the MDGs. This shows the importance of this future Treaty, not only as an instrument of WIPO, but also as a milestone for the integration of the rights of the blind and visually impaired into the post-2015 agenda of the Millennium Development Goals. Excellencies, Ladies

and Gentlemen,

By hosting this Conference, Morocco wishes to mark its effective adherence to all the initiatives and approaches devoted to the noble objectives of this draft Treaty. Moreover, it reaffirms its full subscription to the efforts deployed by WIPO in the framework of the harmonisation of national legislations with a view to adopting a Treaty that provides for limitations and exceptions relating to the use of works protected by copyright, in favour of the blind and visually impaired.

Our country has, for years, attached great importance to the cause of persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired and the blind. At the national level, Morocco has, in fact, engaged in a major reform project aimed at the full and complete integration of the blind and visually impaired into society.

Thus, Our country took measures very early on in favour of this community by adopting, in 1980, a law relating to the social protection of the blind and the visually impaired. This provides, among other things, for the implementation of special programmes for the training and education of the visually impaired with a view to ensuring their social, professional, and cultural integration and reintegration.

On this occasion, We wish to pay a supported tribute to the commitment and dynamism of the Moroccan associative fabric, which works for the integration, education, and promotion of this community. We particularly salute the noble and responsible action that the Alaouite Organisation for the Protection of the Blind carries out tirelessly in this field. At the international level, Morocco was among the first countries to have adhered without reservation to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, in 2007.

In accordance with its international obligations in this matter, and within the framework of Our benevolent and constant solicitude towards this segment of the Moroccan population, a national strategy aimed at strengthening the relevant legal arsenal has been put in place. It is in this context that the draft law relating to the consolidation of the rights of persons with disabilities is inscribed, which will be submitted to Parliament shortly. It will be reinforced by the promulgation of another law aimed at promoting the social participation of persons with disabilities.

Furthermore, Morocco is pleased to be among the rare countries to have constitutionalised the rights of the disabled. Indeed, the new Constitution of 2011 has consecrated the full enjoyment by persons with specific needs of their fundamental rights. At the same time, it makes it an obligation for public authorities to "develop and implement policies that aim to rehabilitate and integrate into social and civil life the physically, sensorially, and mentally disabled and facilitate their enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognised to all". Excellencies, Ladies

and Gentlemen,

The international community in general and the member states of WIPO in particular have the moral obligation to remove all obstacles to the access of the blind and visually impaired to culture, science, new technologies, and the media of information and communication.

Also, in the era of globalisation, your Diplomatic Conference will be able to contribute to giving this globalisation a human face by adopting the international Treaty for which you are gathered today in Marrakech, and which will allow this community to discover, explore, and exploit the universal works of knowledge. It is also by allowing it to benefit from the exceptions provided for this purpose that this treaty will give the opportunity to this community to participate in the enrichment of the universal heritage of knowledge and learning.

We once again welcome the participants to this important conference to their second country, Morocco, and wish them a pleasant stay in Marrakech, a symbol of openness and a land of dialogue between civilisations. We also implore the Almighty to crown your negotiations with success. Wassalamou alaikoum warahmatoullahi wabarakatouh".