South Africa – Centre on Knowledge Governance

The South African Copyright Amendment Bill at the Constitutional Court: Notes from the Presidential Referral of the Bill (Part II)

Sanya Samtani / 27 May, 2025

In Part I of this blogpost, I briefly set out the procedural history of the copyright reform process that led to the Presidential Referral of the Bill to the Constitutional Court. I also briefly explained the scope of Referral proceedings and the parties involved. In this Part, I discuss the issues raised during the hearing and what to expect going forward. Issues raised during the hearing In line with the Court’s past jurisprudence, the proceedings centred around the constitutionality of the two sets of provisions referred by the President on the basis that he referred them – the fair and equitable remuneration provisions and the new exceptions and limitations. I discuss the arguments raised regarding each set in turn. I focus here on the oral submissions – the full written submissions on record are available here. Fair and equitable remuneration (proposed sections 6A, 7A, 8A) On the fair and equitable remuneration provisions, the President remained concerned that these provisions apply retrospectively which, in his view, would constitute arbitrary deprivation of property. The President explained that although Parliament deleted the specific subsections that explicitly provided for the retrospective application of the provisions, he believed that the provisions were still applicable retrospectively. Retrospectivity, he argued, would constitute a substantial interference in the copyright owner’s enjoyment of their property (and the profits derived from it) as it would open up the possibility for windfall gains for authors notwithstanding whether their original historical assignment of copyright was unfair. Moreover, the President argued that the indiscriminate application of these provisions to all past and future assignments constituted an arbitrary deprivation of property. To prevent retrospective application, the President argued that it was necessary for the language of the provisions to explicitly state that they would apply prospectively. Underlying this argument, the President confirmed that in his view, copyright constituted a constitutionally protectable set of property interests. When questioned, the President conceded that should these provisions be read exclusively prospectively they would not be unconstitutional. The President’s initial position was supported by the Freedom Front Plus. It was also supported by the Democratic Alliance who argued that the only reasonable interpretation of these provisions was that they applied retrospectively to past and future profits derived from the exploitation of the work under copyright. On a prospective interpretation, the DA argued, the language that allows the existence of an agreement to the contrary in proposed section 6A(2) would render the provision a nullity. The DA also supported the proposition that these provisions ran the risk of arbitrarily depriving copyright owners of their property on the basis that there was a substantial interference with the right by significantly reducing its value, imposing uncertainty costs upon the entire industry and interfering with the contractual autonomy of the parties. Further, the DA argued that the lack of similar language in sections 7A and 8A was irrational – and although the President adopted this argument in his oral submissions, irrationality was not expressly part of the 2020 or 2024 Referral letter, raising the question whether the Court can consider it. NAB/SANEF/CFE aligned themselves with the arguments made by the President that these provisions had retrospective effect and ran the risk of arbitrarily changing the rights negotiated and acquired by broadcasters in the current regime, asserting that the broadcasting industry may face dire consequences as a result. Parliament, however, explained in their oral submissions that they had a clear legislative intent to ensure that the impugned provisions had prospective effect. This intent was demonstrated by the deletion of the relevant subsection from all three provisions, as acknowledged by the President, in addressing the reservations set out in his 2020 Referral letter. Recreate Action aligned with Parliament’s position on the deletion of the explicit retrospectivity provisions, and argued that there is a presumption against retrospectivity in the law. Where a provision can be read prospectively, it must be read in that manner. Recreate Action responded to the DA’s argument that a prospective reading of section 6A renders it a nullity by explaining that the non-obstante clause in that section would ensure its continued application. In any event, Recreate Action argued that even if the impugned provisions applied retrospectively, that did not in and of itself render them unconstitutional. To the extent that they were a deprivation of property, Recreate Action argued that even if copyright was incorporeal constitutional property, it required a lower threshold of justification for such deprivation, and that the deprivation only encompassed a single incident of ownership – the royalty right. Finally, Recreate Action responded to the claim of indiscriminate application as arbitrariness by explaining that the standards of ‘fairness’ and ‘equity’ in the text of these provisions act as levers to calibrate the application of these provisions to address unequal bargaining power and prevent any windfall gains. In addition to testing these arguments, the Court raised concerns about the specificity of the President’s reservations with regard to these provisions. In particular, the Court was concerned as to whether Parliament had a meaningful opportunity to address the whole of these provisions – in other words, whether the President’s 2020 Referral letter flagged the whole of these provisions as triggering his reservations, or just the relevant subsection that explicitly provided for their retrospective application. If the Court were to find that the whole provisions were not referred to Parliament – to enable Parliament’s consideration of them prior to the Referral to the Court – this may bar the consideration of the merits. New exceptions including education and library exceptions (proposed sections 12A-D, 19B, C) I now turn to the second set of provisions that the President was concerned about – the new exceptions and limitations. The President argued that the exceptions and limitations sought to be introduced go too far and would conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and cause unreasonable prejudice to the rights holder. The President was also concerned that the fair use provision suffered from vagueness and introduced a level of uncertainty that could

The South African Copyright Amendment Bill at the Constitutional Court: Notes from the Presidential Referral of the Bill (Part I)

Sanya Samtani / 27 May, 2025

On 21 and 22 May 2025, the South African Constitutional Court heard the matter of Ex Parte President of the Republic of South Africa: In re Constitutionality of the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill. The hearing in these ‘Referral proceedings’ was significant as it was only the second time in South Africa’s history that the President triggered an exceptional constitutional mechanism to refer a Bill to the Constitutional Court for a decision on the constitutionality of certain aspects instead of signing it into law. The Court’s decision in this case will determine the fate of a long drawn-out legislative reform process aiming to transform and modernise South Africa’s apartheid-era copyright law and bring it into the constitutional era. The Court adjourned to deliberate on the matter and the judgment will be handed down in a few months. In this blog post, I briefly outline the arguments advanced by the parties and amici curiae and highlight the issues for determination by the Court. While the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill is also at issue, I focus on the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13F-2017] (‘the Bill’) as the aspects of the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill that are at issue are those that incorporate the Copyright Amendment Bill. The hearing focused almost exclusively on the Copyright Amendment Bill. This blog post is in two parts: Part I deals with the procedural history that led to the Presidential Referral of the Bill and sets out an overview of the referral proceedings, and Part II deals with the issues raised during the hearing and sets out the next steps. The long and winding road to the Constitutional Court For those coming to this issue afresh, South Africa has been in the process of reforming its copyright law for over a decade, if not longer. The current Copyright Act 98 of 1978 is old-order legislation, enacted prior to democracy. While the South African Constitution allows for apartheid era legislation to be saved if it can be interpreted to be consistent with the Constitution, the Copyright Act freezes pre-constitutional economic and social relationships in the creative industry and knowledge production processes. While some parts of it may be read compatibly with the Constitution, other parts of it are in need of urgent reform. As the South African Parliament has recognised in the memorandum on the objects of the Bill, the existing arrangements have had adverse impacts upon artists due to the “power imbalance, vulnerabilities and abuse taking place in the music industry”, people with disabilities, educators and researchers. In addition to addressing this, the Bill seeks to make South African copyright law consonant with “the ever evolving digital space” as the current Act is “outdated and has not been effective in a number of areas”. In doing so, the Bill clarifies in some detail the powers and functions of the Copyright Tribunal and, for the first time, regulates collective management organisations. The procedural history leading up to the Constitutional Court hearing is central to understanding why the enactment of the Bill as a whole is subject to the Court’s determination of two narrow and specific issues. I address this briefly. Parliament passed the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017] in March 2019. The President, instead of signing the Bill, triggered a constitutional mechanism to refer the Bill back to Parliament citing procedural and substantive constitutional reservations in June 2020 (‘2020 Referral letter’). At that stage, concerned about pervasive and persistent copyright discrimination being further exacerbated by the delay, Blind SA – a disability rights organisation by and for people with visual and print disabilities – launched litigation against the state for interim relief pending the conclusion of the legislative reform process. Consequently, in 2022, the Constitutional Court in Blind SA v Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (‘Blind SA I’) held that the Copyright Act 1978 was unconstitutional to the extent that it unfairly discriminated against people with visual and print disabilities and read-in a court-crafted remedy to rectify this discrimination with a deadline of two years from the date of judgment for Parliament to enact legislation. The remedy drew heavily from the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled (‘Marrakesh VIP Treaty’), on the basis that this treaty was in the process of being domesticated through copyright reform, though South Africa had not yet acceded to it. In the meanwhile, over a period of approximately four years, Parliament considered and addressed the President’s constitutional reservations and additionally gave draft legislative effect to the Court’s judgment in Blind SA I passing the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13F-2017] in February 2024. The deadline set by the Constitutional Court in Blind SA I lapsed in September 2024, along with the court-crafted remedy, and although Parliament passed the Bill, the President did not take action in response to Parliament’s amended version. Blind SA then urgently sought from the Constitutional Court a re-reading in of the same remedy or any other remedy that would be just and equitable following the lapsing of the remedy. Days later, the President opted for an exceptional constitutional mechanism by which he referred the Bill to the Constitutional Court (‘2024 Referral letter’) citing that two of his 2020 constitutional reservations had not been ‘fully accommodated’ by Parliament (‘the Referral proceedings’ discussed below). The Court passed an interim order in December 2024 reading in once again the remedy in Blind SA I until the final determination of the matter – which took place on 7 May 2025. In Blind SA v President of the Republic of South Africa (‘Blind SA II’), rather than further extending the Blind SA I remedy, the Court took note of the significantly advanced legislative process and the fact that the President did not have any reservations concerning the provisions regarding people with disabilities and, instead, read-in those provisions and the relevant definitions from the Bill into law, until such time as amended copyright law came into force. This ensured that

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Educational exceptions in Copyright Amendment Bill are mandated by international law and the Constitution

InfoJustice Eds. / 16 May, 2025

By Faranaaz Veriava and Anne Marie Strohwald The Constitutional Court [in South Africa] will on 21 and 22 May 2025 hear submissions relating to the constitutionality of the Copyright Amendment Bill that has been in the making since as far back as 2015. The National Assembly voted for the Copyright Amendment Bill in 2024 amid some intense opposition. The President, instead of signing the Bill into law, invoked his presidential prerogative in terms of section 79(5) of the Constitution and referred it to the Constitutional Court, raising reservations in respect of the constitutionality of certain aspects of the Bill, including whether the educational exceptions – that exempt activities associated with teaching and research from copyright protection – are consistent with international copyright law. The Centre for Child Law, a public interest organisation and the Unesco Chair: Education Law in Africa, a rights-based think tank, both based at the University of Pretoria, have been admitted as the fifth amicus curiae in the matter. Interestingly, in a crowded house of eight amici that include publishers, authors, musicians and other creatives, the Centre and the Unesco Chair are the only amici that have been granted leave to make oral submissions in the court. At the core of their submissions is the assertion that while the President considers whether the Bill is compliant with international copyright treaties and whether the exception violates section 25(1), the property right clause, the President is completely silent on South Africa’s obligations in terms international human rights law and its broader constitutional obligations. Background to the Copyright Amendment Bill referral In 2020, the President referred the Bill back to Parliament for similar reasons. In 2021, the organisation Blind SA, frustrated by the persistent impact of delays in copyright reform that prolonged a book famine wherein blind persons had access to less than 10% of available books, instituted an application to declare the 1976 Copyright Act invalid due to its failure to provide a copyright exception for persons with visual disabilities. In 2022, the Constitutional Court in Blind SA I declared the impugned provisions, that required the permission of copyright owners – rarely provided – before their works could be reproduced in accessible formats for persons with visual and print disabilities, to be constitutionally invalid. The provision also criminalised accessible formatting without such permission. The court held that requiring the permission of the copyright owners to create accessible formats amounted to a discriminatory barrier that unfairly prevented people with visual and print disabilities from accessing copyrighted materials. The court order suspended the declaration of invalidity for 24 months and formulated an interim remedy in the form of a reading-in of a temporary provision to the Copyright Act. The suspension period lapsed in September 2024, after being voted on in Parliament, but without being signed by the President. This necessitated that Blind SA return to the court on an urgent basis. The Constitutional Court in Blind SA II held that the failure to enact the Bill within 24 months created a legal gap, reverting the Copyright Act to the position before Blind SA I, making people with visual and print disabilities vulnerable and having to make the impossible decision to either break the law or not have access to a books. It therefore read into the Act the carefully crafted education exception in the Bill that aims to enable accessible format shifting for persons with visual and print disabilities. This provision is not one of the educational exceptions that are the subject of the President’s current reservations and remains in place if, and until, the Bill is finally signed into law. Educational exceptions will ease access for poor learners and students Thus, while Blind SA II is a long-awaited victory for blind people for multiple reasons, the educational exceptions are not only included in the Bill to facilitate access to learning materials for persons with print and visual disabilities, as is suggested in the President’s submissions. The educational exceptions are necessary to ensure that all learners and students, including the poorest learners and students, have access to learning materials. This category of learners and students, while including persons with print and visual disabilities, constitutes the majority of learners and students in South Africa. Copyright, therefore, exists as a barrier to access to educational materials for poor learners and students. A wide body of evidence, including from Unesco, makes clear that there is a direct correlation between educational materials and educational outcomes. Research disaggregating data on educational outcomes further highlights that educational outcomes are worse for learners and students from poorer communities lacking access to basic educational resources. For example, copyright laws preventing the making of copies of textbooks for learners and students make access to knowledge unaffordable. The Centre and the Unesco Chair argue that the educational exceptions are necessary for South Africa to comply with international human rights law to ensure the enjoyment of three reinforcing and mutually interdependent rights: The right to education, the best interests of the child principle and the principle of equality and non-discrimination. Furthermore, section 39(1) of the Constitution mandates that international laws serve as an interpretive guide to its counterparts in the Constitution. Section 233 of the Constitution also requires that, “when interpreting any legislation, every court must prefer any reasonable interpretation of the legislation that is consistent with international law over any alternative interpretation that is inconsistent with international law”. The right to education is recognised in several international and African regional instruments, including: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) – all of which have been ratified by South Africa, thus creating obligations for South Africa as a party to these instruments. International human rights law elaborations of the right confirm that the educational exceptions are permissible. The availability of education in international human rights law refers not only to the availability of schools, but also includes the availability of resources to facilitate teaching and learning. The accessibility

Africa: Copyright & Public Interest, Blog

SA CONCOURT OPENS DOOR TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN COPYRIGHT CASE

Denise Nicholson / 15 May, 2025

In its landmark ruling on 7 May 2025, the Constitutional Court has opened the doors to access to information and accessible formats for people with disabilities. It has also paved the way for South Africa to ratify the 2013 Marrakesh Treaty. For decades, Blind SA has been lobbying against the ‘book famine’ and lack of provisions for blind and visually impaired persons in the current copyright law. This discrimination has gravely affected their social and economic development, education, work and leisure opportunities and other aspects of their lives, including lack of equal access to reading material that sighted persons have taken for granted. The law has in fact made copying and reuse of copyright work in accessible formats illegal, without permission from rightsholders, essentially criminalising people for needing to access information. Historical Context: 1999 – 2019 As early as 1999, the library and educational sectors raised concerns at a multi-stakeholder workshop convened by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) about the discriminatory nature of the current copyright law against people with disabilities. DTI proposed amendments to the Act in 2000. More restrictive provisions were proposed for education, libraries and archives, and minimal provisions were included for people with visual impairments. A task team mandated by the South African University Vice-Chancellors’ Association of South Africa (SAUVCA) and the Committee of Technikons (CTP), predecessors of University South Africa (USAf), challenged the proposed amendments to the Act in Parliament. These proposals were subsequently withdrawn and not included in the Amended Copyright Act of 2002, which then only addressed needle time for musicians. The task team had already succeeded in stopping more restrictive draft Regulations being passed in 1998. From 2002 until 2009 there was a legislative impasse with regard to copyright reform. Due to many problems in the music industry, the Department of Trade and Industry decided to commence a process of reform in 2009. It commissioned various research studies and established a Copyright Review Commission to investigate ongoing problems in the music industry. The DTI convened workshops for stakeholder groups and input was given on various aspects of the copyright law. To ensure a holistic approach to the 1978 Act, the DTI was provided with important documents and resources relating to education, libraries and other information services, and persons with disabilities, and other relevant issues sourced from WIPO, WTO, UNESCO, Creative Commons, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL)’s Model Copyright Law, and from regional copyright project findings and local organisations. Appropriate clauses and provisions were also submitted to the DTI relating to countries with progressive copyright laws where developed countries were enjoying benefits that South Africa, a developing country, still did not have in its copyright law. In July 2015 the DTI published a draft Copyright Amendment Bill for public comment and it was also discussed at a multistakeholder workshop convened by the DTI in Gauteng. After receipt of many submissions and necessary edits and amendments, the Bill was forwarded to Parliament in 2017. The Bill included Section 19D with appropriate provisions for people with disabilities, including those who are blind, deaf, dyslexic or suffer from other disabilities that prevent them from accessing information. In 2013, South Africa strongly supported the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. The Treaty came into effect in 2016, but South Africa did not ratify it, stating that its national copyright law would need to be amended first to include appropriate provisions for people with disabilities. Some years later, it confirmed that once the Copyright Amendment Bill has been signed, it will move to ratify the Treaty. Parliamentary Approval; Presidential Rejection The first Parliamentary process took over two years but the Bill was finally passed by both Houses of Parliament in 2019. It was then referred to the President for assent, but he did not act on the Bill for a period of 15 months. The President was being lobbied strongly by rightsholders, collecting societies and multinationals, and was receiving unprecedented pressure from the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) and the EU Commission, to stop the Bill. This led him to decide not to sign the Bill and to refer it back for Parliamentary review on 16 June 2020. He requested a review of certain clauses, including fair use, exceptions for education and academic activities, libraries, archives, museum and galleries, and temporary copies, questioning their constitutionality. Notably, these reservations did not include Section19D. This also led to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry agreeing to send the Bill for retagging from a Section 75 Bill (National) to a Section 76 Bill (Provincial), which resulted in a drawn-out process through all nine Provincial Legislatures. Blind South Africa Litigation According to previous commentary, “Recognising that the referral would result in an inordinate delay, Blind SA approached the Gauteng High Court in 2021, primarily seeking to have the Copyright Act declared unconstitutional to the extent that it “limits and/or prevents persons with visual and print disabilities accessing works under copyright that persons without such disabilities are able to access”. Blind SA also sought an order reading in the provisions of the amendment bill that sought to give effect to the Marrakesh Treaty”.[1] On 7 December 2021, the Gauteng High Court ruled that the current Act is unconstitutional as it relates to people with blind and visual impairments . On 21 September 2022, the Constitutional Court confirmed this ruling and made a landmark decision, marking the first time in its 27-year history that it addressed a copyright law case. The Court recognised that the absence of provisions for accessible formats in copyright law constitutes disability discrimination. This ruling set a global precedent, affirming that copyright law, like any other law, must be interpreted in a way that aligns with constitutional principles, including the rights of people with disabilities. As an interim solution, the Court read-in a temporary provision (Section 13A) into the current Act, allowing for the creation

Africa: Copyright & Public Interest, Blog

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA HIGHLIGHTS THE URGENCY OF COPYRIGHT REFORMS

InfoJustice Eds. / 25 March, 2025

By ReCreate South Africa The cost of excluding billions of people in Africa and the Global South from access to knowledge could be huge for future generations. Knowledge-sharing in Africa is not always transactional, and the existing IP and copyright paradigms are not working well for creators or audiences on the continent. Creators are often poorly remunerated and in many cases audiences and students cannot afford access to knowledge and entertainment. Some global corporations take an extractive and exploitative approach to African creativity. Africa needs a new knowledge governance system to take into account the role of traditional and indigenous knowledge. These were the conclusions of an international conference entitled “Copyright and the Public Interest: Africa and the Global South” held last month in South Africa. The convenors were ReCreate South Africa, a coalition of creators and users of copyright material and the conference took place at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (3 February), at the University of Cape Town Library (5 February) and at Innovation City (6 February). This conference was a follow-on from ReCreate’s inaugural conference on the “Right to Research in Africa” held at the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town in January 2023. Conference partnered with Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP), the intergovernmental organisation, South Center, the University of Cape Town’s IP Unit, Mandela Institute, Law School and more. The conference was made possible by PIJIP and Arcadia, as well as Open Air. You can watch the full conference sessions online. IP as a tax on African Creativity: Protecting the Livelihoods of Creators In his opening input, Ben Cashdan, convener of ReCreate South Africa and former economic advisor to President Nelson Mandela, said that IP royalties are a de facto tax on Africa. “Income from IP royalties on all creativity, on all inventions around the world, topped $1 trillion in the past 24 months for the first time, and the United States gets about $130 billion of that. Africa gets a tiny fraction. Could that be because we don’t have creatives? Could that be because we don’t have actors, writers, musicians? Obviously not. The system operates in such a way that we don’t get the fruits of our labor here in this country and on this continent.” South African singer Mercy Pakela, whose music topped the charts in the 1980s, recounted how she had signed with record labels so that her music could be heard by music lovers around the world, but over 40 years later she still feels she has not received fair remuneration. Pakela said “I wish I knew then what I know now because then I did not know that it was business. I just wanted to be on stage. I thought it was just about talent.” Jack Devnarain, Chairperson of the South African Guild of Actors highlighted that many performers in Africa die poor due to the power imbalance between artists and their distributors or rights owners. He pointed a finger at those whose business models restrict the livelihoods of African performers and who are opposed to copyright reform. “There are people, particularly the American-based organizations, the corporate giants in the Global North that are working very hard, and I’m talking about the publishers, the studios, the streamers, the broadcasters, that do not want South African actors to have a royalty earning right.” South Africa’s CAB and Why Teachers Need Fair Use The Copyright Amendment Bill (CAB), passed by Parliament in South Africa, but still awaiting the President’s signature, aims to solve the problem of exploitation of artists by introducing a right to fair royalties or equitable remuneration. The CAB also broadens access to knowledge for communities. Hence it addresses the needs of both constituencies, creators and users. The President has referred the Bill to the Constitutional Court over concerns that it may lead to arbitrary deprivation of property of rights holders. Advocate Iain Currie, lawyer for ReCreate raised questions around whether Intellectual Property is property in the traditional sense and also challenged the view that adjustments to Copyright laws in the public interest are arbitrary. One of the main objectives of the CAB is to ensure that teachers and learners have access to educational materials, which is clearly a public interest goal. According to Dr Mugwena Maluleke, President of Education International, “there is a shocking shortage of 44 million teachers worldwide. A major catalyst for this shortage is the inability to attract and retain teachers due to inadequate conditions for providing quality teaching,” including a shortage of textbooks and learning materials. “Fair use in education is the key that unlocks the door to a world of knowledge and creativity, by allowing educators to utilize copyrighted materials in their teaching.” Moreover “Fair copyright legislation is essential to enabling teachers to adapt and use the material and reach an increasingly diverse student body.” Maluleke is also General Secretary of SADTU, the largest teachers union in South Africa, with a membership of over 250 000 teachers and workers. Dr Sanya Samtani, Senior Researcher at the Mandela Institute in the Law Faculty at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg echoed these sentiments. “The Copyright Amendment Bill is an example of the state trying to regulate copyright, trying to fulfill its international obligations on copyright, and also its human rights obligations, which are constitutional and international in nature.” ‘AI for Good’ in Africa The conference considered the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in solving the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, pandemic responses and countering misinformation. Generative AI has understandably raised alarm bells amongst creatives. Professor Vukosi Marivate, Chair of Data Science at the University of Pretoria, described a project in which broadcast TV shows in South Africa could be used to train AI models to educate local communities about primary health care in indigenous African languages. Marivate said that a power reset needs to take place between local communities and Big Tech based in the Global North. This will allow AI to be used to protect