COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES CELEBRATES ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this afternoon commemorated the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 10 years of its work. The Committee held a panel discussion which was moderated by Orest Nowosad, Chief of Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Introducing the discussion, Mr. Nowosad said that it aimed to celebrate the work of the Committee, highlight the progress made in the promotion and protection of the human rights of persons with disabilities, and identify key challenges for the road ahead.
Theresia Degener, Committee Chairperson, presented the report on 10 years of activities of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities titled “Towards Inclusive Equality”, which would familiarize readers with the work of the Committee, increase understanding of how the provisions of the Convention must be interpreted, and raise awareness about the human rights-based model of disability as enshrined in the Convention. Reflecting on the most important outcomes of the work of the Committee, the Chair said those included giving life to the rights enshrined in the Convention and the many new legal concepts they entailed, and introducing a new concept of equality to international law that went beyond formal and substantive equality and strove towards inclusive equality.
As a result of the Committee’s work, she continued, fellow treaty bodies and other human rights bodies and organizations had started dealing with disabled persons as rights holders, and understanding issues new to them such as accessibility, reasonable accommodation, or supported decision-making. Like no other human rights treaty bodies, the Committee had initiated national monitoring mechanisms in States parties, helping to bring the treaty home and mainstream disability into human rights laws and policies, and had helped open the path for accessibility and diversity within the United Nations, including through increased accessibility to websites and buildings, and captioning in sign languages.
Ronald McCallum, Professor of Labour Law at the University of Sydney and former member of the Committee, in his statement focused on the early years of the Committee, and recalled that when it met for the first time in February 2009, the Palais des Nations was not at all accessible; under the influence of the Committee, the accessibility in the United Nations was now changing. The very first interactive dialogue had been with Tunisia, in April 2011 at the time of the Arab Spring, and the interim Government had been anxious to improve the lives of persons with disabilities in the country. The constructive dialogues, continued Mr. McCallum, were a public affirmation that the Committee, composed of persons with disabilities themselves, could conduct itself in the same manner as other committees; for many government officials and ministers, that was the first time they were questioned by articulate persons with disabilities.
María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Disability and former Chair of the Committee, in a video statement, said that the setting up of the Committee had been a historic moment for a great number of people in the world. The Committee, which from the outset had had a very diverse membership, had actively participated in the critically important treaty bodies strengthening process and in the drafting of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It was imperative for the Committee to maintain a gender balance in its membership, said the Special Envoy, and to continue to work in a very impartial and independent manner.
Catalina Devandas, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, stressed that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had changed the view of persons with disabilities from recipients of care and charity to autonomous rights holders. It was a call for transformation, of laws, policies, environments, attitudes, and approaches, and the work of the Committee had been crucial in operationalizing the Convention and transforming its obligations into concrete calls for action, including though its well-crafted general comments and guidelines which contained the most advanced thinking on human rights today. By addressing the most pressing human rights violations faced by persons with disabilities – far too long ignored by international human rights law, the Committee had made the United Nations system relevant for persons with disabilities for the first time.
Silvia Quan, Senior Adviser on Human Rights, International Disability Alliance, and former member of the Committee, underlined the Committee’s growing expertise and influence in international human rights law, while by its openness to the participation of persons with disabilities and civil society, it had revolutionized the whole United Nations system. Over the past 10 years, much work had been achieved with advancing the rights of persons with disabilities at the global level, but concern remained about progress on regional and national levels. It was a matter of concern, she concluded, that measures possibly adopted in the context of budgetary constraints might slow down the Committee’s work and reduce its impact.
Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia, spoke on behalf of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, stressing the complimentary mandates of national human rights institutions and human rights treaty bodies. The important role of national human rights institutions was recognized in article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which required States to establish independent monitoring mechanisms in line with the Paris Principles. The Committee was a pioneer in cooperating with national human rights institutions, said Ms. Lomjaria, mentioning specifically the 2014 landmark event on the Convention monitoring and the adoption of a landmark joint declaration with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions on the way forward in strengthening cooperation in monitoring the rights of persons with disabilities.
Maria Giovanna Bianchi, Secretary of the Human Rights Council Task Force on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities, established in July 2011 by Human Rights Council resolution 1621, said the accessibility plan it had developed contained concrete measures in the area of physical environment, communications, information and documentation. This framework for action was also a tool to monitor the advancement in those specific issues. Currently, about 80 per cent of the documents produced by the Secretariat were in word or pdf accessible formats, and the Secretariat actively reminded delegations to include in texts of their resolutions a request that panels or discussions were made accessible. By the end of this year, the Task Force would produce the cost estimate for the accessibility plan.
Also speaking was Coomaravel Pyaneandee, an outgoing member of the Committee and its current Vice-Chair, who said that the Committee was a unique example of diversity, which was a great pride of place. Jorge Araya, the very first Secretary of the Committee, recalled that the Committee had started with many obstacles and thanked all those who had made its work more accessible.
The twentieth session of the Committee runs from 27 August to 21 September 2018, during which the reports presented by South Africa, Algeria, Bulgaria, Poland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta and the Philippines will be reviewed.
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. on Monday, 3 September to review the initial report of Bulgaria (CRPD/C/BGR/1).
For use of the information media; not an official record
CRPD18/015E