How the Rules were drafted
Persons with disabilities participated
Meetings took place from 1991 to 1993
There were very few women involved
Main debates centered on the monitoring system for the Rules
Notes:
When the time came for the Special Committee to meet, I was the representative of Disabled People's International to the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. This meant that I would be present at all of the negotiations, which took place between 1991 and 1993. As an NGO representative, I tried to influence government delegations to adopt our point of view. One matter of concern to me immediately was that there were very few women involved in the negotiations, either from the Government or NGO sides. I saw one of my tasks to keep a focus on gender in the discussions.
What also surprised me was that the content of the Rules could be negotiated rather quickly. Partly this was because many of them were vague and subject to interpretation. Partly it was because most of the negotiators were genuinely committed to the cause of disability. Although there were some intense discussions, the main content was agreed early in the process.
Instead, the main debates in the Committee were focused on the monitoring mechanism. The persons with disability wanted a monitoring committee to be funded from the regular budget of the organization. Governments, especially those who were major contributors to the UN budget, were opposed to additional expense. The end-result was a compromise that would not cost as much. But we wondered if it would work as well.