“I think we can now conclude that our work on the articles is extremely well advanced, and that we are ready to enter the final stages of our work,” said Ambassador Don MacKay (New Zealand), the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.
The treaty is designed to protect the rights of an estimated 600 million people worldwide living with some form of disability, which range from blindness and deafness, to immobility and various mental disabilities. Disability advocacy organisations and other non-government organisations (NGOs) assert that this recognition is long overdue. While people with disabilities represent around 10% of the global populace, their rights have been largely disregarded in the international arena.MacKay recognised this as well: "Theoretically, a lot of what we are dealing with is not required because of course persons with disabilities—just like everyone else—have the same human rights and entitlements through the existing human rights conventions…. But the reality is that they have not been enjoying the benefits of these rights. This convention is designed to ensure that they do."Progress
During the seventh session, the committee examined more than 40 articles designed to deal with the wide range of issues facing people with disabilities. A breakthrough agreement was reached on the issue of privacy rights, which would obligate States parties to protect the privacy of people with disabilities, including information on their health, and prevent arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, correspondence and communications.
The committee also came close to an accord on issues ranging from equality and non-discrimination to the rights of people with disabilities to education, health, and work. The committee also came closer to establishing a definition of “persons with disabilities.”
Likewise, there was general agreement on the obligations of States parties to the convention to ensure the full realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities without discrimination. This would require States parties to adopt legislative and administrative measures to give effect to the convention, bring their laws in line with it, and discourage customs and traditions inconsistent with it. They also have to integrate disability issues into development policies and programmes; seek to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability by any person, organisation, or private enterprise; and involve persons with disabilities and disability organisations in enacting laws and policies to implement the convention.
No need to rush
Speaking on the last day of the session, MacKay said that most articles could be placed in a category of “no significant issues remaining” and very few in the category of “difficult issues remaining.” He proposed that the Committee focus at its eighth session—to be held from August 14 to 25 —on the substantive issues which remained, and work on the international monitoring articles. He expressed hope that the text can be finalised and submitted to the General Assembly for adoption this fall.
But some representatives of the 22 NGOs taking part in the meeting have expressed doubts about rushing the process forward. "For me, it's not important how quick it goes. For me, it's the quality of the words because they should last for more than a hundred years," asserted Kicki Nordström of the World Blind Union. "We have waited for this for more than 20 years now, so we don't need the process to get quick through now," she added."We know that many disabled people are waiting for this convention, we know that it needs to be done, but we want to have a 'quality', not a 'quantity' convention," concurred Lex Grandia of the International Disability Caucus, which represented 71 disability organisations at the meeting.Most experts think that the draft will not be ready until January 2007.Contentious points
Remaining issues for discussion for the next session include what type of technical and economic assistance governments should provide.
Regarding this, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour noted that the gap between developed and developing countries remains a major problem, as the lack of money "blocks poor countries from providing equal treatment to their citizens with disabilities." "International cooperation must play a role in ensuring that progress is made everywhere," she added.
Another point of contention is the process of monitoring the treaty’s implementation. The US, with support from Australia and Russia, opposed the establishment of a new treaty body and called for “mainstreaming” monitoring of the new convention into existing bodies.
Disability rights groups were extremely disappointed with this move. “Perhaps the USA has forgotten that mainstreaming disability rights into the existing human rights system has been a complete and utter failure and it is the very reason we are now negotiating a comprehensive convention on the rights of persons with disabilities!” was the reaction of Disabled People’s International (DPI) to this in its on-line daily updates of the seventh session.
For both MacKay and Grandia, however, the most contentious issue remaining is over the issue of legal capacity, which includes assisted or substitute decision-making. In the past, key decisions for disabled persons were often made by someone else."I grew up in an institution and I didn't know what privacy was. There were always people looking at you, making decisions for you and we want to make clear to the delegates, don't do that anymore, don't put people in institutions who are able to live their own life," Grandia said.
Grandia stressed that a person with disabilities should have the right to make their own decisions, own property, have a bank account, secure a bank loan, have their own family and be able to marry, get an education and job, and have the right to live where he or she chooses. But in many countries, he added, they were not allowed to do that.
"Ninety-six percent of children with disabilities worldwide did not attend school at all," he disclosed.
What about women’s rights?
No consensus was reached among the participants whether there should be separate articles on women with disabilities, or whether provisions on women should be included in relevant articles throughout the convention.
But for NGOs and activists advocating for the rights of women with disabilities, this issue is critical and needs to be resolved. Women comprise half of the 600,000 people living with disabilities. In addition to the multiple discrimination women with disabilities have to experience, they face the problem of a double invisibility as women and as disabled persons.
Prior to the seventh session, the Human Rights Watch stated in their website that they were “concerned that the current draft of the treaty does not yet adequately protect the human rights of women and girls.”
Likewise, Dr. Sigrid Arnade and Sabine Haefner, co-founders of the “Towards Visibility of Disabled Women in the UN Convention!” initiative, argued for the need to “complement the convention with specific references to women with disabilities.”
In their legal background paper Gendering the Draft Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, Arnade and Haefner explained the necessity of highlighting issues that affect women with disabilities differently or disproportionately. Doing this will increase the likelihood that the issues will be addressed by governments and others in the convention’s implementation.
“Neutral documents don’t work,” Arnade and Haefner asserted. They called for “explicit references to the position of women and girls, both in a stand-alone article and in specific articles of particular importance to women.” The stand-alone article should concentrate on “measures that need to be taken to address and prevent…discrimination against women with disabilities to meet the obligations States have accepted to achieve equality between men and women.”
On the other hand, specific references to women with disabilities need to be done in articles dealing with areas in which women experience more discrimination compared to men. Among others, these fields include health, education, employment, violence, family rights, and participation in public life.Way forward
The draft convention was notable for its richness and substance, and the participants—more than 400 representatives from governments and NGOs—felt that there had been a genuine exchange of views and a real “buzz” at the meeting.
But civil society groups advocating for the convention are already gearing up for the next round in August. For DPI, it is critical to ensure “that issues pertaining to women and children are properly reflected in text; that this convention will include a strong and effective monitoring mechanism inclusive of the participation of people with disabilities; and that [their] efforts… result in the permanent addition of the rights of people with disabilities—framed in [their] terms and reflecting [their] values—in the body of international human rights law.
Sources:
Arnade, Dr. Sigrid and Haefner, Sabine. January 2006. Gendering the Draft Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Berlin: Disabled Peoples´ International (DPI).
Disabled Peoples International (DPI). 2006. “DPI Disability Convention Daily Updates.” Downloaded February 10, 2006 from DPI <http://www.dpi.org>.
Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Women and Girls with Disabilities.” Downloaded on February 12, 2006 from the HRW website <http://hrw.org/wome n/disabled.html>.
Schneller, Simon. February 10, 2006. “First-Ever Treaty for People with Disabilities Gains Ground.” Downloaded on February 11, 2006 from Inter Press Service News Agency <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32117>.
United Nations (UN). February 3, 2006. “Concluding Current Session, Disability Convention Committee Reaches Agreement on Privacy Rights, Nears Accord on Rights to Education, Health, Work.” Downloaded on February 10, 2006 from the UN website <www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/soc4693.doc.htm>.
______. February 3, 2006. “Press Conference on Disabilities Convention.” Downloaded on February 10, 2006 from the UN website <www.un.org/News/Briefings/docs/2006/060203_Disabilities_PC.htm>.
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