In Memoriam of Rahul Cherian

Rahul Cherian

Rahul was a lawyer, disability policy activist and the founder of the Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy, and a fellow at CIS. He was a partner at IndoJuris Law Offices in Chennai, having acted as a managing partner of the firm between 2003 and 2008. He was also the co-founder of www.inclusiveplanet.com, the world's largest social network for persons with visual impairment. He was one of the experts who drafted the Treaty for the Visually Impaired currently being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization. His areas of expertise include disability law, intellectual property law and technology law.

Rahul was on the legal expert panel constituted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to give input on the new disability law. He was instrumental in conceptualizing and executing a national Right to Read Campaign to bring about changes in copyright law to enable persons with disabilities access copyrighted work on an equal basis with persons without disabilities. He had helped the State of Kerala draft a plan document with a vision to ensure that by the year 2025 persons with disabilities are completely integrated into mainstream society.

Rahul Cherian's collaboration with CIS

Feedback / Submissions

• Making Public Libraries Accessible to People with Disabilities (January 23, 2013): Thanks to Rahul's efforts, CIS was one of the 20 disability rights groups that wrote to the Ministry of Culture.

• Comments and Feedback on the Draft Twelfth Five Year Plan with respect to Persons with Disabilities (December 28, 2013): CIS was one of the ten organizations representing people with disabilities that sent comments and feedback on the draft twelfth five year plan.

Analysis

• An Analysis of the Comments by World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association (March 30, 2012): Rahul provides an analysis of the comments by the World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association after the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of Copyright and Related Rights.

Blog Posts

• Linking Commercial Availability and Exceptions in the Treaty for Visually Impaired/Persons with Disabilities (January 23, 2013).

• WIPO to Convene a Diplomatic Conference in Morocco to Finalise TVI (December 24, 2012).

• The HathiTrust Judgment and its impact on TVI negotiations at WIPO (October 30, 2012).

• WIPO General Assemblies Approve Road Map on Treaty for the Visually Impaired (October 11, 2012).

• WIPO Treaty for the Visually Impaired — Moving from a Treaty on Paper to a Treaty that is Workable on the Ground (September 28, 2012).

• Breaking News on Electronic Accessibility (September 28, 2012).

• Ring Side View: Update on WIPO Negotiations on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired (August 13, 2012).

• Copyright Amendments – Empowering the Print Disabled (May29, 2012).

• Copyright Law as a tool for Inclusion (March 30, 2010).

• Copyright v. Exercise of Fundamental rights (August 6, 2009).

News & Media Coverage

Rahul was quoted in the following:

• Disability groups in India welcome progress on treaty for blind persons (The Times of India, December 20, 2012).

• US and EU blocking treaty to give blind people access to books (The Guardian, July 30, 2012).

• An online community platform for people with different needs (Press Trust of India, December 9, 2010).

• Disability rights groups oppose changes to Copyright Act (The Hindu, April 23, 2010).