Statement by the Committee on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

3 December 2009

 

GENEVA -- On December 3rd the world will celebrate the 2009 International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The theme of this year is “Empowering Persons with Disabilities with the Right to Act!”

 

As the newest human rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) aims to empower a historically under represented group with the same standards of equality, rights, and dignity as everyone else. Since entering into force in May of 2008 with a total of 20 ratifications, the Convention has grown by 55 in a year and a half, demonstrating as one of the fastest growing human rights treaties in history, the desire for change. Today, with the high rate of ratifications already numbering 75, the CRPD is positioning itself to lead the way for empowering persons with disabilities with the right to act.

 

While the Convention does not directly establish new rights, its importance in improving the lives of the over 650 million persons with disability in the world has been clearly illustrated. In 2006, upon the inauguration of the CRPD, the former Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan released a statement which still reverberates today. Addressing the question why the CRPD had emerged as the newest human rights treaty body, he wrote that, “Too often those living with disabilities have been seen as objects of embarrassment, and at best, of condescending pity and charity…on paper, persons with disabilities have enjoyed the same rights as others; in real life, they have often been relegated to the margins and denied the opportunities that others take for granted.”

 

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to reflect on the work of the CRPD to date, while also highlighting the progress that remains to be made. On the progress to be made for the implementation of the Convention, the right to equal recognition before the law and the concomitant right or capacity to act is one of the defining issues in the task of assuring that actual changes in people’s lives can be felt beyond the laws on a page. This question extends to nearly every aspect in the lives of persons with disabilities, and finds traction in the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

 

One example of the deprivation of the right to act, is that too often in the courts and the legal system, persons with disabilities have their decision-making ability taken away by a person assigned to act on their behalf.

 

Article 12 of the Convention, on equal recognition before the law, requires that in legal proceedings, persons with disabilities shall be provided with access to “the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity”. The right to act is not achieved when decisions are made in substitution of the individual by a legal guardian. To fully respect the will of the individual, we must develop systems of trusted support and assistance, and ensure that in the courts and for legal affairs, the role of a supported decision maker based on a relationship of trust with the person with disability is a fully recognized and legitimate means of expressing one’s right to act.

 

Another area where the right to act is often infringed upon is the involuntary internment of persons with disabilities in institutions which stifle development and subvert decision-making for persons with disabilities. To place individuals against their will into a rigid and controlling environment which does not respect their right to act can be a painful and traumatizing experience. The Convention states in Article 14 that persons with disabilities may not be, “deprived of their liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily, and that any deprivation of liberty is in conformity with the law, and that the existence of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation of liberty.” Not only is unwilling interning of persons with disabilities on account of their disability against the provisions of the Convention, it is a basic violation of a person’s control over their own lives.

 

This December 3rd, and the week-long campaign announced by the CRPD in favor of persons with disabilities, creates an opportunity to place the right to act on the front page of the agenda. Anyone who wishes to participate in this campaign can hold debates and launch awareness-raising activities on the theme of the right to act. Civil society and NGOs can get involved by petitioning government representatives to bring policies and programs in line with the CRPD, and States themselves can take this opportunity to renew, or establish their commitment to the dignity and justice for persons with disabilities by signing, ratifying, or implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

 

It is long time that persons with disabilities are empowered with the right to act. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is the ideal opportunity for moving rights on the page, to changes in people lives.