COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES OPENS ITS FOURTH SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this morning opened its fourth session, hearing an introductory statement by Ibrahim Wani, Chief of the Africa Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda and programme of work. The Committee also discussed and approved the report of its third session and the report of the Chairperson on activities undertaken in the intercessional period.

Mr. Wani, Chief of the Africa Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the unprecedented speed with which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had entered into force raised expectations on the Committee and the human rights community as a whole. The primary challenge was how to harness the momentum and goodwill towards the implementation and realization of the promise of the Convention – full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons.

In statements made by non-governmental organizations and others, speakers said, among other things, that many advantages were to be gained through collaboration in implementing the Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Speakers also said that today would be marked in posterity as a key milestone in advancing the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities throughout the world. It was also mentioned that a new initiative, the Disability Awareness, Rights and Education Initiative had been launched. A speaker expressed disappointment that the Committee would not hold a dialogue with Tunisian disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations prior to drafting the list of issues for Tunisia, and several speakers presented the work that their organizations had undertaken regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.

Speaking this morning were representatives of AP Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit, International Disability Alliance, Disability Awareness, Rights and Education Initiative, International Disability and Development Consortium, The Atlas Council, Human Rights Watch, Australia, Council of Europe, and the United Nations Children's Fund.

This afternoon and tomorrow morning, the Committee will discuss organizational matters, other matters and the methods of work of the Committee in private. On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, 6 October, the Committee will adopt lists of issues on State party reports. The next public meeting of the Committee will be on Thursday, 7 October, when the Committee will hold a day of general discussion on Article 9 of the Convention pertaining to accessibility.

Statements

RONALD McCALLUM, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, welcomed new Committee Secretary Ms. Safak Pavey and thanked her predecessor, Mr. Jose Doria. Today was also the first meeting where Ms. Wan-Hea Lee was with the Committee. Mr. McCallum also congratulated the Experts who had been re-elected to the Committee. The fact that all members standing for re-election had been elected showed the confidence in their work, Mr. McCallum said. He also welcomed the eight new members of the Committee who would take office on 11 January 2011.

IBRAHIM WANI, Chief of the Africa Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the unprecedented speed with which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had entered into forced raised expectations on the Committee and the human rights community as a whole. The primary challenge was how to harness the momentum and goodwill towards the implementation and realization of the promise of the Convention – full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons. In addition to efforts towards increased ratifications and preparations for State party reporting, the Committee could play an important role in identifying priority issues to highlight, thus promoting better understanding of the obligations in the Convention in order to assist to develop appropriate policy frameworks. In this connection, the day of general discussion on accessibility on Thursday was quite timely. Mr. Wani complimented the Committee for focusing in this session on strengthening cooperation with United Nations bodies and other relevant bodies to enhance the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Early this year, an inter-agency mechanism for human rights had been established to institutionalize the mainstreaming of human rights across the United Nations, aiming to be a forum for advocacy for human rights issues, among others. That provided an additional opportunity for advancing the work on human rights of persons with disabilities, said Mr. Wani. There were also United Nations country offices that existed in almost every country, working with Member States and running their own programmes. That was an angle for the Committee to look at regarding the implementation of the Convention. The Human Rights Council was another avenue. Early this year the Council had held a very well received dialogue on disability issues. This highlighted the interest of the Council in this field of human rights and the Committee should therefore continue actively engaging with the Council. The Universal Periodic Review process more specifically was another opportunity: nearly half of the United Nations Member States had been reviewed so far, but disability issues had been sparsely discussed in this context. It was thus important that the Committee highlight the rights of persons with disabilities as another dimension.

Mr. Wani said the regional dimension would be extremely important. Only 22 of the 94 countries that had ratified the Convention were African States. One of the immediate challenges before the Committee was thus increasing ratification of the Convention by African countries. Regrettably, by the end of the 1999-2009 African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, not much had been achieved in Africa in terms of disability. The reason was not the lack of goodwill, but obstacles to the realization of the lofty objectives. It was time for a review of results and the beginning of a new decade, Mr. Wani stressed. In conclusion, Mr. Wani underscored the important task of the Committee to ensure the process of consideration of reports and the consideration of petitions from, or on behalf of, individuals or groups of individuals through the Optional Protocol to the Convention. The Convention provided the Committee with the basis to encourage all competent bodies to provide technical advice or assistance to accelerate implementation.

Discussing the agenda of the Committee for this session, Experts highlighted, among other things, that the agenda should be available one week ahead of meetings and that Committee Members should have an idea of how many communications had been received. It would also be helpful to have an overview of decisions in terms of natural disasters and emergencies for risks with persons with disabilities and how these would be responded to in the future. Taking into consideration these and other concerns, the Committee then adopted its agenda for this session.

RONALD McCALLUM, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, said on 3 May this year the reports of the first 20 States that had acceded to the Convention had been due, but only Spain had met that deadline. Since then, the Committee had received the reports of Tunisia, Peru and China, which were available on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner. No other reports had been received, but several countries indicated delays in reporting. Fourteen countries had ratified the Convention since the last session, bringing the number of ratifications to 94.

SHEREE BAILEY, Victim Assistance Specialist, AP Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit, said many advantageous were to be gained through collaboration in implementing the Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Many survivors of landmine explosions were left with a permanent disability. In the first five years in the life of the Convention, States parties had sought to provide clear principles to guide their victim assistance efforts. At the 2004 First Review Conference, States parties had formally adopted principles, including that victim assistance should not exclude any person inured or disabled in another manner and they had recognised that a rights-based approach, not a charity-based approach, was essential. At the second review conference in 2009, States parties reaffirmed their understanding of equality, full inclusion and integrated and comprehensive approach, transparency and accountability in all victim assistance efforts. States parties also reaffirmed that assistance to mine victims should be part of human rights frameworks and that efforts should be integrated into plans in terms of health, employment, development and poverty, among other things. In the final report of the second review conference, the States parties had noted that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities could provide a framework for all States to meet their responsibilities towards mine survivors and their families. Nevertheless, many challenges remained. To enhance collaboration in the implementation of the two Conventions, contact details of governmental partners at the national level in relevant countries could be shared, along with information on activities conducted in the different States. Also, activities to raise awareness on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities could include discussion of the State’s obligation under the Mine-Ban Convention, where relevant. Those tasked with supporting the implementation of each Convention could also participate in meetings on the implementation of the other Conventions and the potential for collaboration in monitoring and reporting warranted more discussion.

TINA MINKOWITZ, of International Disability Alliance, said this fourth session marked the beginning of the Committee’s substantive work of reviewing reports of States parties. It was disappointing that the Committee would not hold a dialogue with Tunisian disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations prior to drafting the list for Tunisia. This set a significantly negative precedent and departed from the established practices of all other United Nations treaty bodies where exchanges with non-governmental organizations were a valued feature to obtain information on the actual enjoyment of human rights and the challenges faced by civil society. It was hoped that this was an exceptional departure and that in the future the Committee would consult with such organizations.

HASSAN ALI BIN ALI, Chairman, Disability Awareness, Rights and Education Initiative, said he was excited to share with the Committee the launch of a new global initiative. The Disability Awareness, Rights and Education Initiative had been created under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al Missned of Qatar and was supported by a forum of the nation’s first ladies. The initiative aimed to make lasting contributions to the rights of persons with disabilities around the world and capture innovations and lessons learned to encourage future action and advocacy for human rights. The initiative would consist of two main pillars of activity: pillar 1 activities would advance education and awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities while activities under pillar 2 included disability-inclusive pilot projects at the community level. To ensure that supported pilot projects endured globally, information and experiences would be captured broadly and a network of knowledge partners had been established. The Disability Awareness, Rights and Education Initiative stood ready to support the Committee’s work, offer legal research and help disabled peoples organizations in their shadow reporting to the Committee.

DIAN MULLIGAN, of International Disability and Development Consortium, said the work of the International Disability and Development Consortium was primarily led by task groups that cooperated with United Nations bodies. These task groups among other things covered community-based rehabilitation, HIV/AIDS and disability, livelihood, inclusive education, and United Nations engagement. The International Disability and Development Consortium had conducted numerous activities to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. It had notably moderated a discussion on the implementation of the Convention, participated at meetings of the inter-agency support groups on the Convention, and worked with the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs for the Secretary-General’s forthcoming report on persons with disabilities. It had also been involved in copyright discussions relating to persons with disabilities at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

VALERIE KARR, of Atlas Council, said today would be marked in posterity as a key milestone in advancing the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities throughout the world. Today marked the beginning of redefining disability: from oppression to opportunity, from the margins of society to mainstream, from oppression to opportunity. Part of the policy of the Atlas Council was working with transparency and impartiality and having the interests of the 650 million persons with disabilities as the sole criteria, objective and measure of success.

SHANTA RAUBARRIGA, of Human Rights Watch, said Human Rights Watch had recently begun a more targeted effort to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities into its advocacy work. Ms. Raubarriga said women with disabilities were often left behind in post-conflict situations and discriminated against by family members, neighbours, and other people. They were told that they were useless and should die so that others could eat their food. Human Rights Watch called on the Committee to consider holding a general day of discussion on women with disabilities and consider joint advocacy work with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

A representative of Australia said since its first meeting in 2009 the Committee had had an impact across the United Nations system, playing an important part in ensuring that persons with disabilities were taken into account in decision-making. However, the work of the Committee, namely consideration of State party reports, was just about to begin. Australia, for its part, was currently working on its report and hoped to submit it soon.

IRENA KOWALCZYK, of the Council of Europe, said 45 European Member States had signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 25 European Member States had ratified it. The Council of Europe had made a great step ahead since about 2007 thanks to the agreement to draft a plan of action for European States running up to 2015. In September, a major conference would be held in Turkey to review the progress made and the progress yet to make for the coming five years. A Working Group had also been working on the participation of persons with disabilities in public life, attaching great importance to persons with intellectual disabilities. Ms. Kowalczyk underscored that the mission of the Council of Europe was to make citizens understand that disability was a part of human diversity and that there needed to be a shift from a medical to a more social and holistic approach.

NICOLETTE MOODIE, of the United Nations Children's Fund, said the United Nations Children's Fund was looking forward to discussing in more detail with the Committee’s secretariat, non-governmental organizations and United Nations partners how to formalize interaction with the Committee. The United Nations Children's Fund was heartened to know that professional Working Groups were foreseen which would allow relaying inputs from field offices before the list of issues were prepared. Ms. Moodie said that the impact of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities could already be felt in the work of the United Nations Children's Fund where programming for the rights of children with disabilities was increasingly receiving prominence.


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