Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opens twentieth session in Geneva

GENEVA (27 August 2018) - The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this morning opened its twentieth session, hearing from Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, who in her address stressed that the success and impact of this Committee was measured by how its work transformed access to the enjoyment of rights by persons with disabilities.

In her opening statement, Ms. Gilmore remarked that the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – celebrated this year - was the time for appreciation, but also for reflection, reaffirmation and renewed determination to bridge – solidly, sustainably – those still yawning, inexcusable gaps between promise and actual delivery.  This was an extremely important and busy session for the Committee as it was set to adopt the much-needed general comment on the involvement of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes, she said and recognized the critical importance of this Committee in the struggle against discriminatory practices – against stigma, coercion, abuse and violence.

In her report to the Committee, Theresia Degener, Committee Chairperson, briefed on the intersessional activities, which included, inter alia, the participation in the preparations for the Global Disability Summit which had taken place in London in July 2018, and the issuing of a confidential inquiry report on Spain which had found that the segregation and exclusion of children with disabilities from the general education system represented a grave breach of its obligations under the Convention.  The Committee had participated in the eleventh Conference of States parties on 12 and 13 June in New York, said the Chair, welcoming the election of five new female Experts and the announcement by the United Nations Secretary-General of the development of a policy and accountability framework to strengthen the mainstreaming of the rights of persons with disabilities across the United Nations system.

A representative of the Secretariat said that, with the ratification of the Convention by Ireland on 20 March, the number of States parties stood at 177, and that Tajikistan had signed the Convention on 22 March.  The number of States parties to the Optional Protocol remained at 92.  Since the last session, six States had submitted their initial reports: Togo, Tuvalu, Viet Nam, Ghana, Jamaica, and the Netherlands, bringing the total number of received reports to 116.

The Committee then proceeded to adopt the agenda of the twentieth session, which will run from 27 August to 21 September 2018, and during which the Committee will review reports presented by South Africa, Algeria, Bulgaria, Poland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, and the Philippines.    

Speaking at the opening of the session today were Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, and representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Women (on behalf of Inter-agency Support Group), Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Committee on Victim Assistance, International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization (on behalf of the Accessible Book Consortium), United Nations Human Settlement Programme, Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (video-statement), International Disability Alliance, Inclusion Europe, and Autistic Minority International.

All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage.

The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings will be available via the following link: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/.

The Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. today, 27 August, to hold a public consultation on draft general comment N°7 on the participation of persons with disabilities in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention.

Statements

KATE GILMORE, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her opening statement, remarked that the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – and this Committee – was the time for appreciation, but also for reflection, reaffirmation and renewed determination to bridge – solidly, sustainably – those still yawning, inexcusable gaps between promise and actual delivery.  Those serving in the international human rights system, continued the Deputy High Commissioner, had the deepest duty and greatest accountability not to a single treaty, and certainly not to particular governments, but to people, to persons in whose name they served and to whom they had to account for what was achieved and what was not.  That was why anniversaries did matter: through ceremony, ritual and liturgy to remember the gift of fore-parents, to reflect on their legacy, and to consider too the implications for what lay ahead.  The year 2018 was indeed a year of significant milestones for rights: the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the twentieth anniversary of the Human Rights Defenders Declaration, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Vienna Declaration, and critically, the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This was, continued Ms. Gilmore, an extremely important and busy session for the Committee, during which it would adopt the much-needed general comment on the involvement of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes.  Stressing the importance of giving particular attention to people with mental health conditions and those with psycho-social disabilities, the Deputy High Commissioner said that the draft additional Protocol to the Oveido Convention authorizing involuntary treatment and institutionalization of persons with disabilities was a cause for grave concern.  Thus, this session’s joint meetings with the Committee on the Rights of the Child were of critical importance, specifically with regards to the deprivation of liberty of children with disabilities, and for the enjoyment of human rights by children with disabilities, including through inclusive education.  Recalling the Secretary-General’s strong support for treaty bodies, Ms. Gilmore welcomed the start of the process to adopt a system-wide policy, an action plan and a monitoring framework for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the work of the United Nations, and was delighted to confirm that the rights of persons with disabilities would be a critical priority for the Office over the next four years.  “The struggle against a system’s discriminatory practices – against stigma, coercion, abuse and violence – has never been more courageously taken by those empowered by those systems or benefiting from their toxicity.  The leadership and participation of persons with disabilities is simply essential if those systems are to be truly transformed.  In this, the leadership of your Committee had a critical role to play” concluded Deputy Commissioner Gilmore.

THERESIA DEGENER, Committee Chairperson, in her report to the Committee, briefed about the Experts’ intersessional activities, which included the participation in the preparations for the Global Disability Summit which had taken place in London in July 2018, and in several events concerning the situation of human rights defenders.  The Committee had further issued a report on a confidential inquiry in relation to Spain conducted in 2017, which had found that the segregation and exclusion of children with disabilities from the general education system represented a grave breach of its obligations under the Convention.  In the context of the General Assembly resolution on strengthening of human rights treaty bodies, the Chair welcomed the decision extending meeting time and regretted that additional human resources for additional meetings had not been provided by the General Assembly.

Turning to the General Day of Discussion on article 4(3) and article 33(3), the Chair said that, given the severe budget cuts at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the new rule that days of general discussions could only be supported one at a time and every two years, the Committee had decided to hold the day of general discussion in New York, in the context of the Civil Society Forum preceding the eleventh Conference of States parties on 11 June.  It had been so decided because the meaningful consultation and participation was at the heart of the Convention, and most representative organizations of persons with disabilities had attended the Conference of States parties and had not had the resources to travel to Geneva.  The Chair and several Committee Experts had participated in the eleventh Conference of States parties to the Convention from 12 to 14 June in New York.  Ms. Degener welcomed the election of five new female Experts and the announcement by the United Nations Secretary-General of the development of a policy and accountability framework to strengthen the mainstreaming of the rights of persons with disabilities across the United Nations system.  The Committee, continued the Chair, had joined the Expert group on women’s human rights in the context of the Global Compact for Migration, and had discussed a disability-inclusive statement at one of the meetings.

On 13 September, the Committee would celebrate the first International Day of Sign Languages, which would promote the inclusion of sign languages through the United Nations system and highlight the efforts of the United Nations Office at Geneva in this regard.  The Committee had worked with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on drafting a joint statement on guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights to all women, in particular women with disabilities, said Ms. Degener and called upon the Experts to consider the adoption of this ground-breaking statement.  On 31 August, the Committee would celebrate the tenth anniversary of the work of the Committee, she said.  Several meetings with the Committee on the Rights of the Child would take place during the current session, the Chair continued, noting that possible areas of collaboration included a joint general comment on children with disabilities, common input on the Human Rights Council resolution on the empowerment of children with disabilities to be adopted in 2019, and indicators for both Conventions in relation to children with disabilities.

CATALINA DEVANDAS AGUILAR, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, said that during the March 2018 session of the Human Rights Council, she had presented her report on the reform of legal systems for the legal capacity of persons with disabilities, while in October she would present a report on the right to health (10:44).  The Special Rapporteur had held a meeting with notaries concerning their role in the implementation of the Convention, which would also be followed up by a similar meeting with judges.  With regards to the system-wide approach towards the rights of persons with disabilities in the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur welcomed the decision by the Secretary-General to undertake the baseline review on the situation of persons with disabilities, which would then inform the adoption of a policy and accountability mechanism for the implementation of the Convention, particularly in the context of leaving no one behind.

A representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed the Committee’s work on general comments, and encouraged the Committee to consider the work of the interagency task force for the development of guidelines for humanitarian action for persons with disabilities in their work on the rights of persons with disabilities in disaster contexts.  The Committee was encouraged to consider in its work, inter alia, the empowerment of children with disabilities, including through inclusive education; to work on the clarification of article 8, not only on issues related to stereotyping but also on meaningful involvement; to identify an Expert to take part in the Human Rights Council’s annual half-day discussion on the rights of persons with disabilities in March 2019; and to support the advocacy work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by providing definitions and explanations for a human rights based approach to disability.

United Nations Women, speaking also on behalf of the Inter-agency Support Group for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said that while the membership on the Group had increased from eight to about 25, it remained limited to disability focal persons mostly and recognized the need for engagement from the highest levels of organizations.  Accessibility and reasonable accommodation remained a challenge, including for participants in meetings and programmes, and progress remained uneven across the sector.  The Group expressed full support for the United Nations Executive Committee decision on the inclusion of persons with disabilities and the call for system-wide action and accountability, which was a unique opportunity to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities in all their diversity and at all levels.
A speaker from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Committee on Victim Assistance recalled that victim assistance lay squarely within disability, development and human rights, and emphasised that since 2014, the priority of States parties to this Convention was to integrate victims’ assistance into the legal and policy frameworks on the rights of persons with disabilities.  The speaker encouraged the Committee to adopt a general comment on article 11 of the Convention on situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, which would highlight the complementarity between those two international legal regimes.  The European Union had adopted its Council’s decision in support of the implementation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which would see the setting up of two national stakeholder dialogues, in Iraq and in Uganda, to examine the greater inclusion of landmine victims into disability frameworks and policies.  A global conference on victim assistance would be convened in 2019, in which the participation of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would add great value.

A representative of the International Labour Organization said that the work on promoting the Global Business and Persons with Disabilities Network continued; launched in China and soon in India, it contributed significantly to changing the approach of the private sector to the employment of persons with disabilities.  The Global Disability Summit held in London in July would hopefully have an important impact on disability rights in the future.  Expressing high enthusiasm for the Secretary-General’s announced system-wide action plan and accountability framework on disabilities, the speaker said that the International Labour Organization was one of the United Nations entities that had a reasonably good approach to disability, and yet, there was very little reference to disability in its overarching policy and programming framework, no obligation for field offices to include persons with disabilities in their work, and many premises were not accessible to persons with disabilities.  Those were exactly the issues that the new action plan should address, to ensure that all United Nations entities stepped up their performance in line with the Convention and the leaving no one behind framework.

World Health Organization said that its general programme of work agreed in 2017 had a strong focus on disability, including strengthening health systems and supporting universal health care without financial hardship.  It was trying to tackle discrimination in health care settings and was developing organization-wide standards for the provision of non-discriminatory health care.  The work was underway to develop a package of rehabilitation services to be included under universal health care, and it was also working with Member States to collect high-quality disability data, using the model disability survey developed with the World Bank.  The World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had signed a memorandum of understanding which had identified four broad areas of cooperation, including an explicit support on international norms and standards for the realization of human rights to health and through health.

A representative from the World Intellectual Property Organization, speaking on behalf of the Accessible Book Consortium, said that its work was strategically aligned with a disability-inclusive 2030 Agenda: it supported the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education and was consistent with articles 9 and 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding accessibility and education.  The goal of the Consortium, a public-private partnership led by the World Intellectual Property Organization to implement the Marrakesh VIP Treaty, was to increase the number of books worldwide in accessible formats and make them available to print-disabled people.  Since June 2014, the Consortium had funded the production of over 4,450 educational materials in national languages for primary, secondary and university students.

United Nations Human Settlement Programme was committed to making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable for all, thus the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities were at the forefront of its efforts.  Urbanization was generally perceived to bring about better socio-economic opportunities, access to basic services, and promote social cohesion.  But the consequences of rapid urbanization without effective urban planning were detrimental: nearly one billion people living in cities experienced insecure residential status, inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and other basic services, and there was a gap in providing adequate services to persons with disabilities whose specific needs and barriers were neglected.  The United Nations Human Settlement Programme’s New Urban Agenda offered opportunities for countries to adopt policies and work towards universal access to city spaces and infrastructure that was more inclusive of persons with disabilities.

In a video-statement, a representative of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions reaffirmed that the rights of persons with disabilities was one of the priority areas in its Strategic Plan, while its annual conference in February 2018 had been dedicated to the role of national human rights institutions in monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and data collection.  This conference had been the first annual meeting between this Committee, national human rights institutions, and national monitoring frameworks; the joint declaration adopted by the Committee and the Global Alliance had identified concrete steps in moving forward in the collaboration, including to establish a follow-up group to develop a common framework for the monitoring of article 19 of the Convention.

A speaker from the International Disability Alliance welcomed the day of general discussion on general comment N°7 and the great inclusion of very diverse representative organizations of persons with disabilities.  The International Disability Alliance was aware of the remaining challenges in the draft general comment, and stressed that the inclusion of family members as part of representative organizations of persons with disabilities must be seen as a relevant support of persons with disabilities, particularly in low and middle income countries.  The Committee should continue its jurisprudence on persons with disabilities who were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or other persons, and also the important work on preparing a general comment on situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, even if there was little evidence on the topic.  The speaker welcomed the collaboration with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and expressed hope that it would result in the updating of that Committee’s general comment N°9 on children with disabilities.

Inclusion Europe said that the Committee’s general comments triggered very important discussions on key topics including independent living, equality and non-discrimination, and now participation, and stressed the importance of ensuring that persons with disabilities could participate in those crucial discussions.  The most important barrier to the participation of persons with disabilities was the denial of their legal capacity, particularly to persons with intellectual disabilities.  The movement must also include families and not replicate the exclusion they already experienced in societies, the speaker said, stressing that families were the main source of support for persons with intellectual disabilities – without their families, they were powerless and voiceless.  The goal was to ensure that families were up to the task of providing a sustaining and empowering environment for persons with intellectual disabilities, understand their human rights and sustain their children through their lifespans.

Autistic Minority International said it would not make a written submission on draft general comment N°7 because the Committee would not consider submissions by representative organizations of persons with disabilities individually, but as an analytical report of all submissions, which would not take into consideration the specific situation of specific representative organizations of persons with disabilities.  The practices of this Committee should set a better example for the kind of consultations that States parties should have with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.  Another factor that contributed to the exclusion of autistic persons support groups was that they were often self-help and informal, and often operated on social media without formal structures.  States parties and disability organizations should ensure that they consulted with autistic persons themselves, and not with their parents or representative organizations only.

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