COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES OPENS SIXTH SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened its sixth session this morning, hearing an address from Wan-Hea Lee, Chief of Groups in Focus Section Human Rights Treatise Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. During the meeting, the Committee members reviewed and adopted the agenda of the sixth session and listened to reports from United Nations bodies and non-governmental organizations.

In her opening address to the Committee, Wan-Hea Lee, Chief of Groups in the Focus Section Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that this sixth session would be the last before the High Commissioner concluded the results of two years of consultations with all stakeholders with a report presenting her proposals for treaty body strengthening. It might therefore be useful to review the most important developments of interest to the Committee that had taken place since the last session. It would be helpful during this session for the Committee members to make important contributions toward helping to ensure that all persons with disabilities enjoyed their rights. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would be the tenth human rights treaty monitoring body and the ninth that administered a review process on reports of States parties.

Ms. Lee noted that 150 participants representing more than 90 countries attended consultations in Sion in May this year, during which Chairpersons or other representatives of all the treaty bodies discussed ways to improve treaty body system over two intensive days of dialogue. Civil Society organizations had clearly called for the system to be strengthened, and had proposed many specific ways in which this could be pursued, with varying degrees of complexity. One key demand was that all treaty bodies aligned their engagement procedures, instead of multiplying them in different forms and formats. This reinforced the same request by national human rights institutions made some months earlier. Ms. Lee concluded that with respect to the present session, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights looked forward to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ consideration of the initial Report of Spain; the discussion and adoption of a list of issues for Peru, and the discussion on the progress made by the different working groups established by the Committee

The Chairman, Ronald McCallum, updated the Committee on how many more countries had submitted their initial reports this year. Since the April meeting the initial reports of Mexico, Korea, Belgium and Ecuador had been received by the Secretariat, bringing the number of reports received to 16.

The Chairman then raised the pace of work of the Committee, and said that as the Committee would have to deal with an increasing number of reports, two annual sessions of one week may not be enough time, and a solution was needed. The Committee must examine harmonization and collaboration across treaty bodies, especially the Human Rights Council. Other suggestions included the need to provide a convenient solution to the problem of accessibility and assistance which was still faced by Committee Members. One Expert expressed the hope that the issue of poverty and disability - which affects 400 million people – would be the subject of a special session. Another, drawing attention to the fact that the number of disabled people was now estimated at 15 per cent of the population instead of the 10 per cent previously thought, suggested that this change was duly reflected in the review of country reports. It was suggested that they set up liaison people between Committee members and other committees or treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child which met at the same time in Geneva.

During the discussion with United Nations bodies and non-governmental organizations speakers raised the need to increase efforts of the creation of a policy framework to encourage States parties to guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities to active political participation. Another issue raised concerned the promotion of awareness raising campaigns and capacity building initiatives at country level to educate government authorities and civil society on the Convention.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 from 10 a.m. when it will discuss the initial report of Spain.


Statements

RONALD MCCALLUM, Chairperson of the Committee, said he was delighted to see all fellow Committee members present at this sixth session and recalled that during the last session, held on 11-15 April 2011, the Committee had its first dialogue with the Government of Tunisia. He regretted that of the 20 reports that were expected only Spain’s had been submitted on time and he looked forward to reports from the other States parties, especially from Peru. It was difficult to do more than one report in a week-long session but he looked forward to the possibility of doing three reports a year in two single week–long sessions. He also looked forward to further collaboration with States parties and non-governmental organisations, who had been of great assistance to the work of the Committee. Mr. McCallum regretted that the report from China could not be analysed because it could not be translated in time and informed the Committee members that the documentation department of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was working on the report.

WAN-HEA LEE, Chief of Groups in Focus Section Human Rights Treatise Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said this was another important session for the Committee members to contribute toward, and would help ensure that all persons with disabilities enjoyed their rights. This sixth session would be the last before the High Commissioner summed up the results of two years of consultations with all stakeholders in a report presenting her proposals for treaty body strengthening. It might therefore be useful to review the most important developments of interest to the Committee that had taken place since the last session. Ms. Lee recalled that on 31 May 2011, during the first meeting of the States parties to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, at the United Nations in New York, the ten inaugural members of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances were elected. It would be the tenth human rights treaty monitoring body and the ninth that administered a review process on reports of States parties.

Turning to the issue of the Inter-Committee Meeting, Ms. Lee said that it took place from 27 to 29 June 2011, during which time it focused on enhancing the effectiveness of the treaty bodies and looked at the harmonization of working methods. The High Commissioner believed that despite the financial and economic crisis, States could not avoid their responsibilities and it was unacceptable that the treaty body system functioned with a 35 per cent reporting compliance rate and that lack of resources should weaken States parties’ accountability under international human rights law.

Ms Lee underlined that the Convention continued to attract interest because since April 2011, Columbia, Cyprus, and Pakistan had ratified the Convention and that brought the number of States parties now to 103. She concluded that with respect to the present session, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights looked forward to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ consideration of the initial report of Spain; the discussion and adoption of a list of issues for Peru, and the discussion on the progress made by the different working groups established by the Committee. The Committee would also have the opportunity to exchange with colleagues from different United Nations bodies about their most recent activities in the field of disability rights. Ms. Lee assured the Committee of the full support of its secretariat to assist in the fulfilment of this important mandate.

Adoption of Agenda

During the review of the agenda for adoption a Committee member suggested that a discussion be held to examine the harmonization and collaboration across treaty bodies, especially the Human Rights Council. Other Committee members suggested the need to discuss how changes to documentation and other logistics could improve the operation of the Committee. A solution to the workload needed to be found, as the Committee was dealing with an increasing number of reports. One possibility could be to hold a session with the International Air Transportation Association personnel and air transport working group. One Expert expressed the hope that the issue of poverty and disability - which affects 400 million people – would be the subject of a special session. Another, drawing attention to the fact that the number of disabled people is now estimated at 15 per cent of the population instead of 10 per cent previously thought, suggested that this change is duly reflected in the review of country reports. The setting up of liaison people between Committee members and other committees or treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child which met at the same time in Geneva, was also suggested. And there was still a need to deal with the issue of accessibility and assistance which was faced by Committee Members. The agenda of the sixth session was finally adopted after consideration of the above suggestions.

Discussions with United Nations Bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations

ALANA OFFICER, Co-ordinator: Disabilities and Rehabilitation of the World Health Organization, said that the world report was a joint production of the World Health Organization and the World Bank with a large number of contributors from other United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society. The world report provided a comprehensive scientific analysis on the global disability situation and attempted to answer some of the questions that had been raised this morning concerning statistics on persons with disabilities in the world and their access to health care. There were about one billion people with disabilities and of those, 110 to 190 million had very significant difficulties in functioning. The second issue was that the report indicated that the number people with disabilities was increasing, and was associated with ageing and poverty. The third issue was the discrepancies facing women, children and the ageing with disabilities. The report indicated that something significant in the environment could be changed in order to address most of the difficulties faced by people with disabilities including the school drop-out rate for children with disabilities. The report also outlined that people with disabilities were less likely to gain access to economic activities and the labour market and had higher rates of poverty. In poor income countries people with disabilities faced catastrophic health expenditure. The report recommended that governments and developing partners invest in specific programmes and services for people with disabilities. The report was expected to be the basis for national situation assessments, and to encourage and promote the development of national action plans. It was also intended to be used for policy dialogue aimed at all stakeholders in dealing with issues of persons with disabilities. The report was developed within the framework of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and therefore had a human rights framework.

BARBARA MURRAY, of the International Labour Organization, said that the goal of the International Labour Organization was to conduct decent work for men and women all over the world, including those with disabilities, and this was implemented in a number of ways. The first included the International Labour Organization’s 1983 Convention regarding employment opportunities. The International Labour Organization was compiling an overview of outstanding practice including vocational rehabilitation training for persons with disabilities. They were also setting up a private-public framework with multinational corporations to foster employment for persons with disabilities. The International Labour Organization had been examining the legal enabling environment to establish employability of persons with disabilities in African countries. This included support in favour of persons with disabilities in undergraduate and graduate educational programmes in universities across Africa. Since 2009 the International Labour Organization had had an internal disability inclusion initiative with the aim of ensuring that all workers in the International Labour Organization actually took disability rights serious.

ERIC YANG, of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, said that the Department for Economic and Social Affairs served the main Secretariat to the conference of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Department for Economic and Social Affairs supported governmental policies on a normative framework concerning disability, especially during the sessions of the general Assembly and the Commission for Social Development. The Department for Economic and Social Affairs would be working with and providing support to the work of the assembly, including its discussion around planning and organization of the envisaged high level meeting. Together with World Health Organization, International Labour Organization, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Development Programme and the Department for Economic and Social Affairs they were working to support the establishment of a United Nations policy to provide the rights of persons with disabilities and a multi-donor trust fund which will support capacity building across the board. The Department for Economic and Social Affairs continued to support the work of the special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development, including his work in monitoring and implementing standards and rules for persons with disabilities and the promotion of awareness-raising campaigns.

SIMON WALKER, of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the main issue related to the thematic study that was mentioned earlier was the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life. One of the issues raised related to the right to vote and the right to be elected to public office, which were sometimes placed on the basis of psychosocial and intellectual disability. There would be a panel during the March 2012 Human Rights Council session to examine the issue. There had been increased work at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the country level.

ERIC NEIMAN, of the United Nations Children’s Fund, said that the United Nations Children’s Fund was currently developing a global strategy on disability and inclusive development. In this context it was finalising guiding principles for its work as it related to and with persons with disabilities. The United Nations Children’s Fund was making efforts to build staff capacity and held for the first time in at least a decade a headquarters-orientation on the rights of persons with disabilities. The United Nations Children’s Fund’s country offices have continued to increase their programmes on issues of disabilities. Such programmes continue to shift from project-based to a more systematic approach, including policy advocacy and legislative reform. Mr. Neiman invited Committee members and observers to read this year’s Report of the Secretary General on the Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which focused on the rights of children with disabilities.

GREGORY GARIS, of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recognized the importance of involving persons with disabilities from the very outset of emergencies so the additional risks they may face in those situations were taken into account. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had planned a series of dialogues in Africa and elsewhere to develop partnerships with all strata of society on how to better approach training and awareness-raising on issues regarding the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

SHANTA BARITA, of Human Rights Watch, said they recently released a report on the barriers of education for children with disabilities in Nepal where tens of thousands of children were not attending school for a number of reasons. Human Rights Watch would also look at the political participation of persons with disabilities in Peru, where the government had indiscriminately removed their names from voters’ lists.

A representative from International Disability Alliance said that they would be holding a study session for delegates from Uganda, the Philippines and Nepal in order to better expose and inform them about International Disability Alliance’s work. International Disability Alliance asked to mainstream the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities across the treaty bodies. Their aim was to ensure an awareness of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ standards across all treaty bodies to report the work of the Committee and hoped that certain general comments of the treaty bodies would be reviewed. International Disability Alliance planned to undertake a campaign in 2012 on the right to vote, in order to remove the barrier to vote based on disability. In order to facilitate follow-up action the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities could adopt the good practices of other treaty bodies by indicating certain priority recommendations, including the obligation of State’s parties to provide information and data on its efforts on guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities.

In concluding remarks, RON MCCALLUM, Chairperson of the Committee thanked everybody for the constructive dialogue and the important suggestions put forward by Committee members for further deliberation.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRPD11/007E