Question & Answer session
with Dr. John Mathiason and Maria Cristina Sara Serrano
10:00am - 12:00noon, Tuesday, January 15, 2002.
Q&A session following a video and Powerpoint presentation.
Participants: Please explain the difference between conventions
and normative rules.
John and Maria Cristina: A convention is an international
treaty that is legally binding on all States that have ratified it or acceded to it. Normative
rules are not legally binding. They are rather guidelines. The effort to develop a
convention is intended to strengthen and make obligatory thie kinds of ideas found in the
rules. It will ensure both implementation and monitoring. There is a bit more explanation
in the PowerPoint.
Mr. Joseph Kwok: I understand their is an ad hoc committee to lead the
consultation process. The secretary General has been asked to give a comprehensive report
to the next General Assembly. How does the UN and its regional headquarters and various
agencies plan to be involved in the consultation?
John and Maria Cristina: We do not know yet. The resolution came late
in the session and they (the committee) would just be getting organized. However, it is
expected that the consultation will [happen] later in the year, and that will give time
for anyone, including regional UN institutions, to [provide] input. Clearly, any input
that comes from meetings like yours will have to be passed on and considered. The same
will be true of the regional bodies. It will be for the UN Secretariat to carry this input
to the ad hoc committee, but your expert group meeting, since it is being organized by the
UN, will obviously have standing.
Ms. Venus Illagan: I would like to know if there are measures being
put in place to insure the full participation of disabled people and their organizations
in the work of the ad hoc committee?
John and Maria Cristina: Again, that has not yet been decided. It is a
committee of governments, but it will have to allow input from non-governmental
organizations in status with the ECOSOC and that includes many organizations of persons
with disabilities. In addition. what has worked in the past is that organizations at the
national level contact and lobby their governments (and often, their members are put on
delegations). That is how we influenced the Standard Rules. One important factor
is that there is a strong representative of disabled people at UN headquarters. This will
allow follow-up and ensure that the organizations in the countries and regions know what
is going on. This is how we were able, for example, to influence the Beijing Conference on
Women. However, some of our strongest influence was by way of specialized expert group
meetings like yours. By definition, since the committee is open to all Member States, it
is worldwide and, in fact, much of the initiatives will not come from Europe or North
America, because they will have problems in adjusting their laws.
Mr. Nawaf Kabbara: It seeems to me that the discussion is based mainly
in Europe and a little bit further but does not include the Arab world. Is there any plan
to open the discussion worldwide?
John and Maria Cristina: There is already a regional convention on
disability in Latin America and there has been work on this in Africa and Asia. The only
model from developed countries that is largely in play, is the ADA (Americans with
Disabilities Act) in the United States but many countries in other regions have laws just
as strong. The key is to ensure that persons in all regions make an effort to pressure
their governments to participate actively and, once the convention is adopted, to
implement.
Mr. Leszek Sibilski: How will the monitoring process of moral
obligation be implemented by the UN?
John and Maria Cristina: The current mechanism is a combination of the
reports of the Special Rapporteur and some monitoring by the Commission for Social
Development. These are clearly inadequate and everyone recognizes this. The problem will
moral obligations is that no State is willing to admit "immorality" so to speak.
A convention will have obligatory reporting and a standing monitoring body.
Mr. Bali Moniaga: Given the enormity of the task, what is the
timetable for the ad hoc committee to complete their work?
John and Maria Cristina: Human rights conventions always take time.
The Standard Rules, not a convention, took from 1990-1993. The Convention on Elmination of
Discrimination Against Women took about 8 years. The Coventants on Civil and Political and
Economic, Social and Cultural took 15 [years]. However, there can be rapid progress at
first, if the concerned organizations give solid input so that the governments can reach
agreement on main, but non-controversial elements. What usually takes time are the few
elements for which there is no easy consensus. What those are will only emerge during the
first session. Also, if the organizations of persons with disabilities mobilize strongly
and have coherent positions, they can help make the process go more quickly. Again, a key
will be to have strong representation at UN Headquarters. Based on past experience, we
would not expect the convention to be finished in less than five years, but miracles have
been known to happen.
Mr. Bali Moniaga: The UN GA Agenda item 119a number seven requests the
Secretary General to provide all financial resources to the Ad Hoc Committee to enable it
to discharge its responsibilites and to promote voluntary contributions to strenghten its
work, in particular, by facilitating the participation of experts from developing
countries. How will decisions be made and what will the selection process be for these
experts?
John and Maria Cristina: On the process: when the resolution was
adopted, the Secretary-General made a statement of "programme budget
implications" in which he said that the committee would meet once during 2002 and
that provision for conference servicing would be made in the budget. Because it is an
intergovernmental committee, it is the responsibility of the Member States to finance
their own participation. However, in other cases, voluntary contributions are solicited to
enable governments who would otherwise lack the resources to participate to send experts
from capitals. That is, the experts to which reference is made is to "governmental
experts" and normally these are designated by those governments. Usually, preference
is given to "least developed countries", but in all likelihood the full
procedures have not yet been worked out. This is the kind of general rule the UN follows. |
