csp - day 3

10am, Friday 4 September. Delegates are piling in, from having tanked up with coffee at the Vienna Café which is just outside the huge conference room 4 where this meeting is taking place. It’s also where the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was negotiated.

This morning’s session is the final one. There was a bit of confusion about the end time, but I think the NYC residents are grateful that it finishes at 1pm given that it’s Labor Day weekend and they get Monday off. This morning’s “interactive dialogue” which will be chaired by the President of the Conference, is somewhat unusual, because an army of UN officials are going to be on the panel. This has the potential to promote some holistic international policy discussions, which could be replicated at domestic level. Anyway, the panellists are: Mr. Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary General (ASG), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) http://www.un.org/esa/desa. Mr. Craig Mokhiber, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) http://www.ohchr.org; Ms. Ana Peláez Narváez, Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/CRPDIndex.aspx; Mr. Michael Adlerstein, Executive Director, Capital Master Plan, http://www.un.org/cmp; Ms. Diane Alarcón, main advisor for inclusive policies and fight against poverty at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), www.undp.org; Ms. Elizabeth Gibbons, Policy and Practice, UNICEF, www.unicef.org.

Craig Mokhiber from the OHCHR says that the CRPD is a “state of the art treaty”. He alters delegates to the OHCHR recent paper (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/10session/A.HRC.10.48.pdf). He highlights the two tiered monitoring system of the CRPD. OHCHR is helping to facilitate States to submit reports. He says that they are working at the UN Human Rights Council, which has mandated the OHCHR to provide a report on national monitoring and implementation. He notes that some other treaty bodies are inconsistent with the CRPD, for example General Comment 8 of the Human Rights Committee allows for mental health detention which would appear to be in contradiction to the CRPD. OHCHR is working on papers on equal recognition before the law, and also inclusive education. They are producing a guide on monitoring the Convention too. He says that the OHCHR’s field offices are working to implement the Convention in those countries and the regions. 

Amna Ali Al Suweidi (Qatar) who is a member of the ComRPD, says that States must report on compliance to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ComCRPD). The ComRPD will hold their 2nd meeting in October and has already “accomplished a huge amount of work with regard to the core working guidelines”. She says the ComRPD is working on a procedure for individual complaints, and she personally has been appointed to deal with complaints. (I have just had a look at this person’s CV here http://www2.ohchr.org/SPdocs/CRPD/CRPD.CSP.2008.1_en.doc, and it appears she has no legal experience – I wonder what assistance she is being provided to ensure that individual complaints will be professionally dealt with.) Further guidance in October, apparently, which will include an example of what is expected the ComPRD of States. She reminds delegates that some rights are of immediate obligation, such as access to justice, whereas economic social and cultural rights are subject to progressive realisation, e.g. education. In terms of monitoring, she says the ComRPD “expects a major involvement of persons with disabilities by providing shadow reports”.

Ok so it’s 10:50am and we’ve heard from DESA, a member of the ComRPD and from the person making the UN accessible. Next up is Ms. Diane Alarcón, main advisor for inclusive policies and fight against poverty at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), www.undp.org.  She says that central to the development is the concept to empowerment, which includes things like the rule of law, so that people can lead productive lives in accordance with their needs and interests. Pwd are “clearly among the mostr marginalised and excluded populations in the world”, including high rates of poverty among pwd and they continue to be excluded from development programmes, including education, healthcare and social services. The CRPD has created, she says, a normative framework for UNDP and lead a range of national level initiatives, and that pwd appear in the UNDP’s strategy “as a key group and focus” for inclusive development within UNDP’s focus include on poverty reduction, mdgs and crisis prevention and recovery. Some UNDP country offices have strengthened their support: over 50 offices are implementing over 100 projects for pwd, many of which include capacity strengthening and empowering pwd. She gives an example (hooray!) from Uzbekistan where they are working on widening employment possibilities. She says they are developing an online learning tool for UNDP staff to raise their awareness about disability issues. In conclusion she says that UNDP wants to mainstream disability into regular development strategies.

Now for Ms. Elizabeth Gibbons, Policy and Practice, UNICEF, www.unicef.org. This year is 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. What is the key work for the rights of children with disabilities? Implementation. UNICEF takes, she says, a rights based approach, and focuses on the girl-child. Number of UNICEF offices dealing with children with disabilities was 33 in 2007 and 55 in 2008. She says there’s a learning guide hot off the press. UNICEF is, she tells us, working on data which is “shockingly lacking”, by developing a ten question scheme which is the largest data source on children with disabilities in developing countries. They have produced a publication called “monitoring child disability in developing countries” which you can download in non-accessible pdf format here: http://www.childinfo.org/files/Monitoring_Child_Disability_in_Developing_Countries.pdf. She says that UNICEF are advocating for education for all, and accessible schools, and they work on rights of children with disabilities in conflict countries. She wants UNICEF to have a disability advisor, and that the organisation recruits more people with disabilities.

Now we're onto the "interactive debate" bit which will go on for 45 minutes. The chair pleads for short interventions. Here we go with the delegates’ interventions. These sorts of sessions on days 1 and 2 can at best be described as variable, with posturing and insights provided by different delegates in equal measure. I won’t summarise all of the interventions, just the ones which I find interesting – a very subject test, I admit. The Italian delegate says that this conference has sought to give a lot of ideas and information but this isn’t good enough, and the next one should be better organised so we can learn about concrete steps in various countries. The UK delegate calls for the UN to do more in facilitating a sharing good practice. Brazil wants more info sharing too, and wants some sort of statement to be adopted. The Thai delegate picks up on this and wants a document to be sent to the General Assembly. 

Stefan Trommel from the International Disability Alliance (IDA) www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org, has the last word on behalf of NGOs. Stefan says that it is satisfied with this last session which has focused on UN action rather than Member State action. He reiterates the importance of revising General Comments, and hopes that the UN takes the view that the CRPD is a supra-instrument and calls for other documents to be amended to bring them in line with the CRPD. IDA is concerned that many of the specialized agencies’ work on disabilities is piecemeal and not systemised into their work – he asks the UNDP for advice on how other agencies can ensure that whatever they do is fully in line with the Convention.

Now there's a summary of one of yesterday's sessions. I need to network with some delegates so am signing off now. Thansk for reading this - i hope it has been helpful (let me know at mdac@mdac.info). Bye!