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GROUP Reports
UN ESCAP / APDF Workshop on Regional Follow-up to the Third and Fourth
Sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral
International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and
Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
11-12 October 2004
GROUPS: 1 | 2 |
3 | 4
- Regional platform: to find ways and means to come up with common
issues among countries within this region so that they may be presented
with more unifying force.
- NGO participation throughout the remaining process.
- Ignore the government process and focus on alternative text.
- Activities a the nation level:
- More collaboration and more active involvement among all sectors
especially the role of DPOs throughout the process:
- Preparation for the implementation of the convention after
adoption and ratification.
- Regional network and collaboration: Strategies to promote the
process, to adopt, to ratify and to implement this convention.
Report Group Two – monitoring mechanism
General comments:
- Attention must be given to the uniqueness of each country
National monitoring mechanism:
- There must be an article requiring the establishment of a national
level monitoring body contained in the convention
- The focus of the article on national monitoring mechanism should be on
the function of that mechanism rather than on the format of the mechanism.
However each country must be able to demonstrate that their mechanism
meets the functional requirements set out in the convention
- A peak governmental body should be established to implement and
monitor the convention at the national level. This body should include
people with disabilities and would ensure representation of civil society
in the reporting process
- The role of this body would be:
- Promotional
- Implementational
- Protection of rights
- Research and development
- There should be an independent national institution established, in
line with the principles contained in the Paris Principles, to monitor
implementation of the convention. The mandate of existing national
institutions should be expanded to ensure they can play this role in
monitoring the convention rather than establishing a new body. The role of
a national institution should be broader than just monitoring
discrimination complaints and should include redress and disadvantage
Monitoring criteria;
Clear criteria and indicators should be developed for use during national
monitoring. Civil society should be involved in developing these criteria
International monitoring mechanism:
No consensus was reached on this point
International cooperation:
This should include capacity building, exchanges of human and material
resources, sharing of good practices, and sharing of outcomes of scientific
advancement.
Data collection and statistics:
The current article on data collection and statistics should be move to
later in the convention to the section on monitoring and implementation.
Existing data collection mechanisms should be broadened to include
information on disabilities and existing data should be disaggregated by
disability.
Progressive realization:
Progressive realization should only apply for economic, social and cultural
rights and not for civil and political rights. A plan should be put in place
so that as resources and technical capacity become available these rights
can be progressively realized. This should be included in article 4 on
general obligations.
Representation:
Where people with intellectual, severe and multiples disabilities are
considered, this group felt that families and/or supporters should be
included in consultations regarding planning, implementation and monitoring
of the convention, in some cultural contexts.
Capacity building of self-help groups and technical
cooperation
Talking points
A. Capacity-building for Self-help Groups
- Challenge of finding and identifying disabled persons/PW from very
remote areas;
- Need to establish accurate statistics to develop enough, appropriate
and relevant programmes and services;
- Focus on capacity-building of self-help groups so they can identify
their needs and aspirations, develop their services advocate for their
rights;
- Potential of self-help groups to assist in policy development,
influence legislation, work closely with their government; have
representative in consultative bodies a the local, national and regional
levels; work for inclusion; serve as models for other disabled persons and
groups;
- Need to also address the needs of parents’ organization as they need
support so they can help their children with intellectual disability so in
turn they can also be organized and have representative later on;
- That capacity-building activities/training should identify and include
young disabled persons as potential future leaders of self-help groups of
each country;
- Trained and organized disabled persons will be the more effective and
appropriate advocates for the passage of the convention.
B. International Cooperation
- Foster international cooperation among countries so we can exchange
good practice; share experiences and learning; make training accessible to
more disabled persons; exchange visits.
- International NGOs/donor agencies are now challenged to look for and
allocate resources in helping disabled persons to organize themselves and
engage in capacity-building projects/activities to develop their sector.
- Work closely with governments to insure projects are sustainable,
legislations and policies are put in place; and for inter-government
support, like the ODA, will have disability dimension (disability
inclusive).
- That international cooperation should facilitate the bringing of
resources to the sector of disabled persons, parents and families and
governments that are committed to.
C. Conclusion
To build capacity among disabled persons and foster international
cooperation:
- Need to have the data-where they are and what services they need;
- Through the use of media, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) from remote
places can be identified;
- Balance allocation of resources between provision of services and
capacity-building of self-help groups;
- Need to have full commitment from government to make things happen and
ensure sustainability;
- Include the sector of people with intellectual disabilities through
capacity-building and support to parents;
- Work with government and build partnerships with them;
- Have a plan of action at all levels (local/district levels) to ensure
that benefit of the convention trickle down to village level where we find
more PWDs;
- Need to work for preparation of environment/society, in terms of
attitude to ensure desired changes. However, it is equally crucial to work
on preparing PWDs, in terms of developing
self-confidence/self-esteem/self-reliance, so they can advocate for their
own rights, needs and aspirations;
- That technical cooperation must focus on human resource development of
the disabled sector;
- “Disability Inclusive” Technical Cooperation projects in all fields,
such as infrastructure development, provision of social services, etc.
Development of national legislatives and a comprehensive
policy
Group 4 considered the follow elements to be essential for development
I. Pre-condition (This should starts even before ratification)
- Empowerment of Disabled People Organization (DPO) and involvement of
persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the process of legislative
development.
- Awareness raising of government and policy makers.
- Partnership between DPO coalition and government.
- Participation of PWDs in all processes.
II. Development of rights-based policies/laws and review of existing law
and policies
- Development of rights-based laws and review of existing policies and
laws, with priority accorded to accessibility, education, and employment.
- Development of national laws with clear definition, not subject to
unnecessary wider interpretation (e.g. clear definition of
discrimination), with good contents, structure, appropriately reflecting
culture and local context.
- Development of comprehensive law as an umbrella law with specific
regulations.
- Mainstreaming of disability concerns into specific sectoral laws.
- Inclusion of clear incentives and penalties.
- Clear identification and implementation of enforcement mechanism at
central and local government.
- National coordination mechanism, majority of which should be
participated by PWDs and their families. This mechanism should be
responsible for development and monitoring the national law.
- Sensitization of public officials.
III. Views of Asia-Pacific
- Independent living of PWDs does not mean living alone from the family.
It refers to self-determination.
- All international cooperation projects should incorporate disability
perspectives.
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