By Antoine Fobe, EBU Advocacy & Campaigning
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), entered into force on 3 May 2008, is the first international, legally binding instrument setting minimum standards for rights of people with disabilities. The first human rights treaty to which the EU has become a party and to ever have been ratified by a regional organisation, the CRPD is a powerful tool to explore and promote ways of fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities by developing and implementing legal, policy and practical measures. All the EU Member States have signed and ratified the convention.
The European Union (EU) itself acceded to the CRPD on 23 December 2010, and it entered into force in the EU on 22 January 2011. The EU is responsible for implementation of the Convention to the extent of its competences. This of course includes EU funding. As required by Article 33(2) of the CRPD, the EU established a framework to promote, protect and monitor implementation of the CRPD, for matters of EU competence. It also defined a European Disability Strategy for 2010-2020, currently being revised for the next 10-year period.
Article 30, paragraph 1, of the CRPD defines the right of persons with disabilities to take part on an equal basis with others in cultural life. Among other, it obliges State Parties to “take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities (…) enjoy access to (…) films (…) in accessible formats”.
The EBU Statement related to Article 30 describes the related accessibility needs for blind and partially sighted persons: “Television, film and video productions need to be audio described and audio subtitled, distributed through normal channels and made available at the same time and cost”.
Requirements for the accessibility of films are further elaborated in the same statement, as follows:
- Television broadcasters, programme manufacturers, film producers and manufacturers of DVD and other digital reproductions of audio visual presentations must be required to produce and distribute all their products with audio description and audio subtitling.
- Blind and partially-sighted people must have access to the same range and quality of access to digital television programmes via audio description and audio subtitling as other people in their community. Other television services, such as programme guides and interactive services must also be fully accessible.
- All cinemas, theatres, sporting and cultural venues open to the public must provide audio description and audio subtitling services of all their performances for blind and partially-sighted people.
Genesis of a new EBU campaign – With all the above considerations in mind, EBU started to look into funding to the film industry, to argue that the EU could use more of its leverage to promote good practices. The idea came from our German member organisation, DBSV, who informed us of the state of play in their country and the room for progress at EU level. Our first public expression on the matter was in the form of our Statement on European Elections 2019, among a list of 10 key issues for the new legislative period. This naturally led us to make concrete recommendations in a first position paper about MEDIA funding to the film industry, released in the context of EU discussions on the proposed regulation on the Creative Europe Programme for 2021-2027.
The coming months will be critical to make progress, as the budget negotiations, including on Creative Europe, are expected to conclude rapidly.