General News
Oening day of the 8th session of the CRPD Committee Geneva
First day of the 8th session, 17 September 2012
Yesterday morning the Chair of the CRPD Committee, Professor Ron McCallum, officially opened the 8th session of the Committee which will run from 17 - 28 September 2012.For the first time the Committee's session will be held for two weeks during which it will hold dialogues with three states: China, Argentina and Hungary, adopt the list of issues on Paraguay, examine complaints under the Optional Protocol as well as advancing their work on General Comments on Article 9 and Article 12 of the Convention.The public opening was webcast live by IDA at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/(the archived video will be posted on this same website), and also the sign language interpretation was webcast live at http://www.livestream.com/ida_crpd (where the video is already archived and available for viewing).
The Chair warmly welcomed the sign language interpretation, captioning and webcasting of the session. He affirmed the Committee's will to have their meetings accessible and their view that webcasting likens to reasonable accommodation under the Convention which allows persons with disabilities around the world who do not have the opportunity to travel, to listen and watch the Committee's session.
Ms Wan Hea Lee made an opening statement on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. She informed that since the 7th session, seven more countries have ratified or acceded to the Convention bringing the total of States Parties to 119, and 72 States Parties to the Optional Protocol. She provided an update of the treaty body strengthening process and highlighted some of the proposals of the High Commissioner, including: establishing a comprehensive reporting calendar that will ensure stricter compliance by States in their reporting obligations to treaty bodies and the equal treatment of all States parties; increasing coordination amongst treaty bodies in relation to individual communications and the adoption of common guidelines on procedural questions; increasing accessibility and visibility of the treaty body system through webcasting of public meetings and the use of new technologies; a simplified reporting procedure; alignment of working methods, among others. This was also discussed by the treaty body Chairpersons in their meeting in June in Addis Ababa during which the Chairpersons endorsed guidelines on the independence and impartiality of treaty body members, the “Addis Ababa guidelines”, which reaffirms that their independence and impartiality is a key feature in upholding the human rights treaties.
The Chair congratulated fellow members of the Committee, Mohamed Al-Tarawneh (Jordan), Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes (Chile), Ana Pelaez Narvaez (Spain) and Silvia Judith Quan-Chang (Guatemala), who were re-elected at the Conference of States Parties, and also passed his congratulations to newly elected persons who will take up their positions in January 2013 including Laszlo Gabor Lovaszyr (Hungary), Diane Mulligan (UK), Safak Pavey (Turkey), Monthian Buntan (Thailand) and Martin Mwesigwa Babu (Uganda). He paid tribute to those members whose terms would expire at the end of the year including Jia Yang (China), Fatiha Hadj Salah (Algeria), Amna Ali Al-Suwaidi; Monsur Ahmed Chowdhury (Bangladesh) and Gábor Gombos (Hungary) who contributed enormously as the first twenty members of the Committee. The Chair also expressed welcome and gratitude to all the members' assistants.
The Committee secretary, Jorge Araya, informed that the Committee received nine reports since the 7th session, including from Kenya, Ukraine, New Zealand, Brazil, Qatar, Serbia, Slovakia, Portugal and Chile, making a total of 35 reports received by the Committee. The 28 reports pending consideration will take until 2020 to examine given the current time allocated to the Committee. There are 58 reports overdue by the end of 2011. The Chair asserted that more time was needed for the Committee to review reports and that he would be appearing before the Third Committee of the General Assembly to seek more time.
Statements were made by the Council of Europe, OHCHR focal point on disability, the OHCHR gender unit, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF.
The Council of Europe stated that working with people with disabilities is high on the agenda for the next two years and it will continue to implement the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities which extends over a ten year period (2006-2015). In the coming years, the Council of Europe will focus on access to cultural life, sports, tourism and leisure activities of persons with disabilities and encourage member states to follow recommendations to prevent multiple discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, as well as promoting political participation of persons with disabilities in line with Article 29 of the Convention.
On behalf of the human rights advisor on disability within the OHCHR, Krista Orama provided an update on current work, including the preparation of the High-Level Meeting on disability and development which will take place in New York in September 2013, OHCHR's study on work and employment of persons with disabilities for which it has received more than 70 contributions and which will be finalised before the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council in March 2013 for the annual interactive dialogue on the rights of persons with disabilities focusing on this theme. Regarding the UN Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Multi-donor Trust Fund, a joint initiative of UN DESA, UNDP, UNICEF, ILO and WHO, they have together identified 16 projects from UN country teams which the Office will participate in implementing. A joint mission with DESA to Kenya and Ethiopia was conducted in July to assist States and non-State actors for CRPD implementation. The OHCHR has finalised the training package on the CRPD and its Optional Protocol whose material is available on their website and can be used to develop training workshops on the Convention. A first training of trainers will be organised in Geneva in September with a view to disseminating the training material and developing the capacity of field presences to deliver training courses. In addition, the legislation handbook which aims to guide States Parties on how to align their national legislation and practice with the CRPD will become available on their website in the second half of this year. The Office actively contributes to several initiatives aimed to improve accessibility in the UN for Persons with Disabilities, including two Task Forces established for this purpose at the level of the UN Secretariat and the Human Rights Council, and they are cooperating closely with this Committee on the assessment of your procedures and the UN at Geneva at large undertaken by Microsoft, Middlesex University and AbilityNet.
The OHCHR gender unit provided updates on developments since the study on violence against women and girls with disabilities including measures to give publicity to the study and encourage follow up to its findings and recommendations, including participating in an international conference on the challenges in the new millennium for women with disabilities organised by the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI) in Madrid in June 2012. A report will soon to be presented by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women to the General Assembly on violence against women with disabilities which builds on the findings of the OHCHR study and analyses the intersection of gender and disability with other causes of marginalisation and exclusion. The Committee was encouraged to use the study's findings in reviewing states and in elaborating General Comments and to pursue the issue through closer cooperation with the CEDAW Committee and other mechanisms.
Tom Shakespeare from WHO shared highlights of WHO work including continuation of promotion of the World Report on Disability which has been launched in nearly 40 countries.The sign language version of the report, being produced together with the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) will be available in autumn. The mental health department of WHO has launched the WHO quality rights toolkit which aims at ensuring that mental health treatments follow human rights principles and evidence based approaches. The WHO is preparing a statement on involuntary sterilisation and technical meetings will be held on 14-15 October; the draft statement will soon be available for circulation and consultation until the 26 October and the Committee was encouraged to participate in this. The WHO is advancing in their work on: the model disability survey, finalising international perspectives on spinal cord injury, developing guidelines on medical rehabilitation; a CBR training package whilst the first CBR world congress is coming in November which will be held in India; as well as reviewing interventions which improve health professionals understanding of disability rights and their communication with People with Disabilities with a view to having a publication on best practices. The WHO published two studies on violence against People with Disabilities this year which show that people with disabilities had a 50% higher chance of having experienced violence in the last year, rising to nearly four times higher if they were people with mental health issues, and children had nearly four times the rate of violence against them than non-disabled children. They are currently reviewing evidence on interventions which reduce violence and support victims of violence among disabled men and women and it should be published in 2013. The first part of the a training package has been finalised which helps promotion and prescription and aftercare for appropriate wheelchairs for people with mobility impairments, as well as an internal toolkit on mainstreaming disability in WHO's offices in the 194 Member States of WHO.
Secretary of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, Michelle Woods, provided an update on the status of negotiations on an instrument for the benefit of visually impaired persons or print disabled persons whose goal is to encourage member states to adopt exceptions and limitations to copyright exclusive rights for the provision of accessible versions of copyrighted works to visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities and to provide for cross-border transfer of accessible versions of copyrighted works. A draft treaty which was mostly written by the World Blind Union was submitted by a number of Member States in 2010. A consensus document emerged in June 2011 and was accepted as a single working text of the Standing Committee as revised in November 2011.This past July 2012 we met again and had very good progress with the text. The Standing Committee concluded and recommended to the WIPO General Assembly that it have an intersessional negotiating meeting on this topic and if approved could take place from 17-19 October upon which a request would be made that the General Assembly convene an extraordinary General Assembly in December with the goal of convening a diplomatic conference on this subject in June or July 2013.
Nicolette Moodie of UNICEF informed about the series of structural and systematic measures taken to better address issues related to rights of children with disabilities by making UNICEF programs more accessible to and inclusive of children with disabilities and their families, such as: providing guidance to countries; establishing the interdivisional Working Group on disability and disability focal points in several country offices and developing an all staff web based disability training for global regional and country staff and partners. At the interagency level UNICEF has been playing an active role to ensure better results of children of disabilities; as one of the co-chairs of the UN Inter-Agency Support Group on the CRPD, it plays an active role on the UN Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. UNICEF also leads the Global Partnership on children with disabilities which already has the engagement of more than 150 organisations including UN agencies, local and international NGOs and DPOs, governments, donors, private sectors, etc. Through consultations and discussions among partners the Global Partnership has identified that over the next year it will focus on three critical areas with regard to children with disabilities namely nutrition, education and humanitarian action.From 14-15 September, UNICEF hosted a major gathering of the Global Partnership in New York which was the first time that partners came together to discuss and raise awareness on issues facing children with disabilities. Later this year, the UNICEF annual flagship report will be issued which will focus on children with disabilities. The UNICEF regional office in Eastern Europe recently issued a publication on a rights-based approach to an inclusive education for children with disabilities.
These statements were followed by statements fromcivil society including, IDA, Human Rights Watch, and International Social Service.
Yannis Vardakastanis, IDA Chair, shared five key points to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities: 1) mainstreaming CRPD rights in all programmes, policies and initiatives throughout the UN system and at the country level; 2) ensuring that the post MDG framework and the High level meeting on disability and development are disability rights inclusive and CRPD driven; 3) allocating more time and resources to the Committee so it may effectively carry out its work; 4) implementing in practice and in a meaningful way Articles 4(3) and 33(3) of the CRPD for the active involvement and consultation of representative organisations of organisations of persons with disabilities in CRPD implementation at country and UN levels; 5) putting in place a capacity building programme to support DPOs to be able to carry out this important function.
Mr Vardakastanis addressed the fact that the Committee continues to be prejudiced by a lack of resources and time and ensured that IDA will continue to advocate for the Committee to be granted additional time as well as seeking more permanent solutions. In this connection, he welcomed the High Commissioner's proposals to strengthen the treaty body system and in particular expressed support for the proposal for a comprehensive reporting calendar which will have an enormous impact on the Committee's work in the face of the rapidly growing backlog. The calendar would act to reinvigorate engagement by States and civil society in the review process, many of which are currently losing motivation due to lengthy delays and unpredictable scheduling. He further welcomed the proposals and current efforts to make information, communications, meetings and websites more transparent and accessible across all treaty bodies. In particular, IDA supports the proposal put forth by Sweden and several other States on mainstreaming the disability perspective in the treaty body strengthening process. In particular, their proposal to establish a special budget arrangement to account for the “extra” costs associated with the provision of reasonable accommodation and accessibility would ensure the participation of persons with disabilities across all treaty bodies, whose establishment, along with other accessibility measures, should not be conditional upon the strengthening process and should be implemented without delay. Mr Vardakastanis affirmed the important role of DPOs in the work of the Committee and the need for a secure and private space for civil society to share information with treaty bodies. He relayed IDA's strong support of webcasting live public sessions of all treaty bodies to ensure the principle of transparency, equal treatment and non-selectivity. Welcoming the Committee's initiative to hold a half day of general discussion on women and girls with disabilities at its 9th session, Mr Vardakastanis encouraged the Committee to encourage increased engagement by UN Women on these issues. Finally, he expressed appreciation for the provision of sign language interpretation and captioning for more transparency and accessibility to persons with disabilities.
Amanda McRae, on behalf of Human Rights Watch, expressed their anticipation of the three state reviews, particularly on China and discussion of the draft mental health law, as well as on the situation of Chen Guangcheng. With respect to Hungary, she awaits the discussion on the right of political participation of persons with disabilities; and for Argentina, the discussion on the right of reproductive health for People with Disabilities.
Mia Dambach from International Social Service spoke on behalf of the Working Group on Children without Parents and encouraged the Committee to pay attention to the situation of children deprived of their family especially those with disabilities by having reference to the UN guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in developing the arguments and recommendations especially when reviewing State Party reports.
The public opening session was closed at 11.40am.
Between 11.50 and 1pm, a private briefing was held between the Committee, DPOs and NGOs on China and Argentina, within the Committee's formal session.
IDA, Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch each spoke on mainland China and raised the following issues : failure of laws in general to ensure persons with disabilities can invoke their rights; failure to prevent and prohibit infanticide and violence against persons with disabilities; lack of implementation of equal recognition before the law through the continuation of substituted decision making mechanisms; continued practice and investment in institutionalisation and failure to take steps to ensure that persons with disabilities can live independently in dignity and participate in the community; the failure to promote inclusive education and continued special education of children with disabilities; lack of choice in higher education, vocational training and employment; the absence of consultation by the government with a diversified range of independent organisations of persons with disabilities; the state secret law and regulations which set forth specific information and classification levels for a diverse range of information including information related to issues and requests by the Committee in its List of Issues; disability based detention and the inadequacies of the draft mental health law; and the situation of Chen Guancheng.
The Hong Kong Coalition for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, composed of 18 DPOs and NGOs with a delegation of almost thirty people present in Geneva, made an intervention raising the need for the HK government to : ensure a human rights based approach to the rights of persons with disabilities; implement disability mainstreaming in legislation, policies and programmes; ensure a high level committee to formulate and coordinate issues to implement the CRPD; and establish an independent monitoring mechanism with the adequate resources and capacity to protect, promote and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities.
On Argentina, DPO & NGO representatives of Red por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad (REDI) and Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) provided a presentation raising the following issues: lack of legislative harmonisation with the CRPD and the absence of an action plan or comprehensive strategy at the local and national levels for CRPD implementation; failure of the new Civil Code to uphold Article 12; lack of implementation of Article 29 with active steps to ensure the right to vote of institutionalised person and accessibility; deprivation of liberty based on disability particularly of persons with psychosocial disabilities, the chain of exclusion from participation in the community by lack of inclusive education, low employment of persons with disabilities with little incentives for employers, institutionalisation and inadequate supports to live in the community; the need for more direct participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations and to designate an independent monitoring mechanism which complies with the Paris Principles.
The remaining sessions of the day were closed.
Today the CRPD Committee is meeting in a closed session in the morning and in the afternoon will commence its dialogue on China.The session will be webcast this afternoon from 3-6pm and tomorrow morning 10am - 1pm (GVA).
The remaining public sessions of the Committee will be webcast as follows (all times are indicated in Geneva local time)
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