Report from the Third and the fourth Ad Hoc Committee Meeting for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

by Monthian Buntan
President, Thailand Association of the Blind
October 11, 2004

Slide 1

Introduction

As member of the advisory committee to the prime minister of Thailand, I have been assigned to represent Thailand in the UN Ad Hoc Committee meeting and was also chosen to be one of the working group members to draft the convention. This report is intended to reflect the outcome of the third and the fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee which took place in May and August 2004 after the first draft of the convention was completed in January.

The Third Ad Hoc Committee Meeting: The First Reading

This ten working-day meeting was conducted through formal meeting: both governments and NGOs were allowed to present statements reflecting their views towards the first draft of the convention. Statements, made by government delegations, were displayed on the screen and added to the original text in square brackets or parentesis while NGOs' statements were recorded as separate documents and presented on the web site. Governments may provide give statements or comments any time during the session while NGOs had to wait until there was no government delegation wanting to speak. Still NGO participation in this session was more so that most UN usual practice.

Meeting result

First reading of the original text from article 1-24 except for article 3 on definitions, article 25 on monitoring and preamble with proposed amendments and revisions by government delegations being added;
Discussion, but no agreement, on the modality of the fourth session and
Unresolved issues, both structure and content, to be further discussed.

The Fourth Ad Hoc Committee Meeting: The Sign of Unnecessary Delay

This meeting was conducted through many methods/modalities. The first week was divided into two parts: a formal meeting to complete the first reading of remaining articles and another formal meeting for the second reading of article 1-15 without article 3 on definitions. The second week was conducted as informal consultation which limited the role of NGOs as observers with no speaking right. Some sessions were also conducted as informals informal in order to try to narrow down differences within each artile. Note: regardless of how informal the meeting was, the environmental setting, except for limited NGO participation, was almost the same as informal meeting.

Meeting Result

Completion of the second reading of article 1-15 with more comments, proposed amendments and revisions by governments being added into the original draft text;
Less and uncertain future of NGO participation;
Duplication of the process which has led to unnecessary delay and
More complication of unresolved issues which need to be further discussed.

Issues to be further discussed

Title (short, long, broad or specific);
Purpose (to be broad in order to reflect the holistic nature of the convention or to be specific in order to capture the strong emphasis on non-discrimination and to ensure full enjoyment of all human rights);
General Principles (to have or not to have "self-determination", "international cooperation", "equality between women and men" "independent living";
Definitions:
- To have definitions in a separate article;
- To have definitions integrated in each relevant article;
- To not have any definition at all or
- To have only necessary definitions, but not others, such as "disability";
General state obligations:
- To have or not to have this article listing so-called "general state obligations" since member states must be obliged to the whole convention;
- To have or not to have "international cooperation" as part of general state obligations and in which way;
- Progressive realization of all cultural, social and economic rights or just aspects which may have be limited by available resources and
- To have or not to have "remedies" here or else where;
Rights to be recognized in this convention:
- To allow any new rights or to stick to only rights in existing international human rights instruments;
- To give recognition to any specific groups, such as women (in a separate article or to be mentioned in the preamble or to have an article/paragraph on all groups which require special attention);
Monitoring:
- National;
- International.

To be Considered by This Region

Regional platform: is it possible 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:
1. Campaign for open participatory approach of the Ad Hoc meeting so that NGOs can still actively participate;
2. Change the strategy by increasing a number of PWDs in government delegations or even trying to have PWDs serve as head of government delegations or
3. Ignore the government process and focus on alternative text.
Activities at the national level:
1. More collaboration and more active involvement among all sectors especially the role of DPOs throughout the process;
2. 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;
Multilateral/multidimentional approaches to "international/technical cooperation" among countries within this region in order to achieve the goal of this convention.
1. Disability-specific international/technical cooperation and
2. Disability-inclusive approach to any international/technical cooperation

Conclusion

It is probably too late and useless to debate whether the convention is really needed at this stage. We should, instead, spend all of time, energy and commitment working on how to make this soon-to-come international legal-binding document, the only one we have, as best and as possibly achievable as we can. After all, the whole world deserves to hear from 400,000,000 women and men with disabilities in this region and our dedicated friends, doesn't it? I leave the answer "yes" or "no" to be decided by all of us, not just in word, but also in deed.

Contact Address

For further information on the progress of the convention, please visit the UN disability web site at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/ .

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Main	Programme	Materials	Online	Bangkok

	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 Bangkok, Thailand, 11-12 October 2004