THE need for Fiji to clarify its status regarding the Marrakesh Treaty and to ratify it for the sake of persons with disabilities has once again been brought into the limelight.
Josese Suqesuqevanua, office manager of the United Blind Persons of Fiji and the representative of youths with disability at the 2025 Fiji Youth Parliament, said the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty would greatly assist persons with visual impairment.
“The Marrakesh treaty is a document that allows the accessibility of published work to be accessible to all persons who are print disabled,” Mr Suqesuqevanua said.
“Those who are finding it hard to read, persons with visual impairment, persons with dyslexia, and so forth, and I’m looking forward to bringing up these issues, since Fiji hasn’t rectified this treaty.
“With this treaty being rectified, this will allow the full participation of persons with disability in employment, in education, or any other aspect of life.”
He said currently, persons with disability were facing difficulty in finding employment because of the assumption of impairment over ability, during interviews.
“We find barriers in terms of seeking employment because the very first challenge that we are facing is when we walk into an interview – even when we have gone through the application process, probably human resources are already assuming our impairment, rather than looking at our ability on what we are capable of doing.
“I previously served as the project officer, where we had to conduct situational surveys of our members in the rural areas and the maritime zones.
“Through the outcomes, we saw that a lot of persons with visual impairment, youths in particular, are still staying at home despite having graduated from tertiary.”
Mr Suqesuqevanua said that despite having the qualifications or meeting the requirements for the job vacancy, most youths with disabilities have yet to receive responses to their job applications.
Mr Suqesuqevanua himself is a graduate of Bachelor of Commerce, Public Administration, Employment Relations, and Human Resource Management from the University of the South Pacific.
