Parallel to the work on a new constitution ICEVI has made an overview of the present regional alignment. In the future ICEVI will have seven regions instead of eight, namely:
Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America/Caribbean, Pacific and West Asia.
There are several ways to form regions. ICEVI has chosen to follow the regional alignment recently adopted by the World Blind Union with one exception. ICEVI will retain the Pacific as a separate region.
The present Middle East region will become a part of a new West Asia region stretching from the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern borders of Bangladesh, including four of the independent nations of the former USSR in this part of the world, i.e. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. For cultural and language reasons, the following countries are grouped under Europe: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakstan. These nations are also members of the European Blind Union. The rest of Asia, including the new nation of East Timor, will belong to the East Asia Region.
The African region will remain the same as before.
In Latin America and the North America/Caribbean regions a few nations will be transferred from one region to the other region due to language and cultural reasons. Belize and Guyana will belong to the North America/Caribbean region while Cuba and the Dominican Republic are members of the Latin American region.
In the listing of countries in the Bye-Laws we have, as far as possible, used the same English names as the United Nation is using.
Harry Svensson
ICEVI Vice President