World Book And Copyright Day

World Book and Copyright Day is an opportunity to highlight the power of books to promote our vision of knowledge societies that are inclusive, pluralistic, equitable, open and participatory for all citizens.

It is said that how a society treats it's most vulnerable is a measure of its humanity. When we apply this measure to the availability of books to those with visual impairments and those with learning or physical disabilities (with different causes), we are confronted with what can only be described as a ‘book famine’. According to the World Blind Union, approximately one in every 200 people on Earth 39 million of us cannot see. Another 246 million have severely reduced vision. These ‘visually impaired persons’ or ‘persons with a print disability’ can access an estimated 10% of all written information and literary works that sighted people can read.

"Books are at the intersection of some of the essential human freedoms, primarily freedom of expression and freedom to publish. These are fragile freedoms." ~Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO~ 

World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on the 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the magical power of books a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures.

23 April is a symbolic date in world literature. It is the date on which several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This date was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books most beautiful invention for sharing ideas beyond the boundaries of humanity space and time as well as the most powerful forces of poverty eradication and peacebuilding.

We, at World Assembly of Youth (WAY), recognise that youth, nowadays, are struggling in extremely various situations with diverse traces and perspectives, mental and social growth. In addition, the existence of technology, which with no doubt brings in a lot of amenities into our life, has influenced young people’s preferences on entertainment leading most of them spending lesser leisure-time on reading.

Acknowledging on the challenges encountered in our society today, we urge young people to develop a habit of reading regularly so as to increase their knowledge on various subject matters. Our encouragement towards reading has even gone further than just raising awareness amongst young people as we continue to publish resourceful reading materials such as news, press releases, and even book especially those related to youth issues.

Therefore, through the commemoration of World Book and Copyright Day, we wish to reiterate our intention of encouraging young people to continuously appreciate books and treasure the value obtained by reading them. As we, at WAY, believe that books are the treasure of literacy, they are miraculous in their every word and imaginative sentences.