The Free Libraries Network FLN statement in response to the announcement of hosting IFLA WLIC 2024 in Dubai
The Free Libraries Network-FLN of India believes that libraries deliver the right to read and make knowledge and information accessible to all, without prejudice. We believe in building gender-inclusive, anti-caste and disability-friendly libraries for all to feel welcome in. To that effect, FLN denounces any policy adopted by any country that does not recognise fundamental rights to personhood & self-identity, including the rights of all LGBTQIA+ communities.
It is however, important to acknowledge human rights violations carried out as matter of policy by all hosts of IFLA events, including those who curb reproductive rights of women, provide military support to colonialist & fundamentalist regimes, institute inhuman immigration laws that separate children from their families or do not offer safe asylum to those escaping war.
If we can extend the same consideration we have directed at Dubai, to all who host IFLA's events, then it will be a victory for all of us, who imagine a just and equitable world through our library work.
A few months ago FLN had also reached out to IFLA's WLIC team because its participation rules and fee made it prohibitively difficult for members like us, from the developing world, to attend and represent our readers. We are yet to receive any kind of response or acknowledgement.
If IFLA is serious about addressing its very serious representation problem vis-a-vis the developing world and the global east, then the discourse has to be much wider than a single host country's policies.
For FLN,
Purnima Rao
Director
New Delhi, India