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Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee, 29
July - 9 August 2002 : NGO Bulletins :Disability Negotiations Bulletin #6
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Today's Weather Forecast Partly cloudy |
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Exchange Rate 10 US Dollars |
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Ad Hoc Committee
Meeting |
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| 9:00 - 9:45am & 1:00 - 1:45pm | Disability Caucus | Conference Room D |
| 10am - 1pm & 3pm - 6pm | Ad Hoc Committee Meeting | Conference Room 4 |
| 2:30 pm | BRIEFING: NGO Briefing Chairman |
Conference Room D |
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Open Letter to the Delegates
Human Rights and Global Realities
Special Event: Disability Caucus Meeting
led by MDRI
Interview with Ugandan Delegate, James
Mwandha
Disability Awareness Badge of Honor and
Dishonor
Profile of World Blind Union
Open Letter to the Delegates
We have been encouraged by the efforts of the European Union to continue to enhance the dialogue between delegations and NGOs present at these meetings. In particular, we appreciate the EU initiative in seeking to enhance the accessibility of these and future meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee. The EU delegation rightly emphasized the values of transparency and participation and noted that these values must be translated into action at the local, national and regional levels after the close of the first session of the Ad Hoc Committee. Accordingly, all those participants - governmental and non-governmental alike - who are present at these meetings have a responsibility upon their return to their home countries to ensure that the convention dialogue is open-ended, inclusive and representative of the interests of persons with disabilities, including the most marginalized sectors of the community.
Directions To The Ad Hoc Committee Meeting Urgently Needed
Please send information to: Major International Human Rights Organizations
Leading international human rights organizations are notably absent at the Ad Hoc Committee meetings. To be sure, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and other organizations are regular and vocal participants in all UN human rights dialogue and would not want to be excluded from historical discussions now taking place in New York at the United Nations that stand to transform the international human rights agenda.
Unfortunately, a historic disregard of disability rights as part and parcel of the international human rights agenda may be the core explanation for their absence. While major human rights treaties do indeed apply to people with disabilities, both human rights organizations and treaty-monitoring bodies have failed to address disability in any ongoing and consistent fashion. Thus, the need for a specialized instrument to bring home the human rights of people with disabilities is clear.
The persistent marginalization of disability as a human rights concern within the work of these important human rights organizations highlights the essential need to secure a place for disability issues to be monitored and considered by all organizations committed to the promotion of human rights. The process by which a convention on the rights of people with disabilities is developed provides both a challenge and an opportunity to strengthen the internal capacity of non-disability focused human rights groups to consider how their work relates to the rights of people with disabilities. Past experience in other international treaty-making processes reminds us that the work of the Ad Hoc Committee-with adequate participation by persons with disabilities and sufficient resources-is fundamental to the integration of a disability perspective into human rights practice.
Human Rights and Global Realities
The most fundamental human right of all...
The right to life
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6: Every human being has
the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of life
As research studies are increasingly showing, the inherent right to life of persons with
disabilities is routinely and systematically denied, both by the refusal or withdrawal of
medical treatment, hydration or nutrition and the failure to regard family-members who
'put us out of our misery' as murderers. At the very least, this illustrates the equivocal
nature of views about our very humanity. The unexpressed but ever-present denial of our
humanity provides the single most profound justification for a convention on the rights of
persons with disabilities.
- 2000 - an 11 year-old boy living at home with his family was murdered by his brother because 'he was mentally handicapped… and had no future'.
- 1996 - the mother of a 10-year old girl with Retts Syndrome 'allowed' her daughter to starve herself to death, later claiming that the child had 'chosen to die'.
- 1995 - a 62 year-old man, whose wife had multiple sclerosis, claimed that her death was a 'mercy killing', initially telling police that he had given her a lethal dose of anti-depressant and honey. Subsequently he admitted suffocating her with a plastic bag. After pleading guilty to attempted manslaughter, he was sentenced to a six-month prison sentence but was released after four-months. He is now a sought after speaker on the celebrity lecture circuit.
Disabled life is too often deprived in grossly arbitrary circumstances, based on others' prejudiced views of our quality of life, or on subjective cost-benefit assessments of our claim to limited social resources. The insidious nature of such prejudice is, as always, only clear when persons with disabilities are substituted for another social group. Would any of us contemplate suggesting that gender, ethnicity, religious belief or social position provides grounds for passively accepting preventable deaths?
- 2000 - an 18 month-old toddler suffocated to death in hospital after doctors refused to give her antibiotics or put her on a ventilator. Her parents sought the aid of the courts to ensure that treatment was provided. The presiding judge decided that, as the child was unable to raise her head off the pillow, her 'life was not worth saving'.
- 1998 - an 89 year-old man who had had a stroke was conscious but unable to speak as he had a breathing tube inserted into his throat. A senior doctor said, "We need the bed - stop all his medication". When the man became short of breath, a junior doctor disobeyed the order to withhold treatment but, nonetheless, the elderly man later died.
- 1995 - a 19-year old resident in a small group-home had severe learning difficulties, hearing and sight problems, epilepsy and digestive difficulties. He was noisy and needed his food chopped or mashed. One night, he vomited so severely his stomach wall ruptured; although a doctor was summoned, there was no indication of any urgency from staff at the home. At 11.00 a.m. the following morning, despite emergency surgery, the young man died of heart failure.
- 1995 - an 85-year old woman who had suffered seven strokes, had mild Parkinson's disease and senile dementia [but was not PVS] died of pneumonia 58-days after her doctor ordered her food supplement stopped. At the time of death, the woman weighed less than 25-kilogrammes. The doctor's prosecution for murder failed 'for lack of evidence'.
- 1992 - a woman with learning difficulties who was an in-patient at a general hospital
died after being tied to the inlet pipe of a toilet cistern whilst staff went to lunch.
She choked on the bib with which she was bound and her own vomit. Seven managers and staff
were 'disciplined' and an inquiry panel found that female patients were routinely secured
to a toilet cistern by the straps of their braziers.
This excerpt was kindly provided by Richard Light (Disabled Peoples' International/Disability Awareness in Action) and formed part of an intervention made by him to the Ad Hoc Committee in its session on civil and political rights.
Special Event: Disability Caucus Meeting led by MDRI
On Wednesday morning at 8:30 am at the UN Crowne Plaza Hotel (304 East 42d Street), Eric Rosenthal, Executive Director of Mental Disability Rights International will present its path breaking report on mental disability rights in Kosovo. A press conference will follow at 10:00 am.
Interview with Ugandan Delegate, James Mwandha
Mr. Mwandha took a few minutes to speak with us about the highlights of Monday's meeting. He expressed appreciation for the comments made by the US delegation on what should be included in a convention, and, in particular, the important role that governments need to play in effecting change and improving the human rights condition of people with disabilities. Additionally, Mr. Mwandha indicated that the most significant contributions to the proceedings were made by the NGOs. As an example, he noted the detailed comments provided by experts on the rights that needed protection such as freedom of information in terms of providing Braille for those with vision impairments and sign language interpreters to those with hearing impairments.
Mr. Mwandha also agreed with the statement by Rehabilitation International (Mr. Tomas Lagerwall) that the number of people in the world with disabilities, currently believed to be about 10 percent, may underestimate the real number of people with disabilities. In his own country of Uganda, a thorough and accurate count of the number of people with disabilities has not been carried out, so it is very likely that the estimates are lower than the reality. According to Mr. Mwandha, statistics related to people with disabilities are not regarded important and significant information and he is hopeful that a convention will prompt countries to include and enumerate people with disabilities
Badges of Honor and Dishonor
Disability Awareness Badge of Honor
To the individuals and NGOs who have worked tirelessly to ensure wider participation by engaging with grassroots communities around the world during the Ad Hoc Committee meetings.
Disability Awareness Badge of Dishonor
Delegations that did not include experts on disability in their delegations.
| What is the "Bureau"? -CORRECTION- We incorrectly listed the Bureau member from the Philippines in yesterday's Bulletin. Following is the correction: Ambassador Luis Gallegos, Ecuador (Chair) |
| Thanks to the following organizations for providing translations: French,
Disabled Peoples' International |
| The US National Council on Disability produced a White Paper, Understanding the Role of an International Convention on the Human Rights of People with Disabilities, which analyzes the rationale for the development of a treaty specifically addressing the rights of persons with disabilities. While this document was prepared with the view to educating American policymakers and organizations, it is a useful resource for all participants. The UN Disability Programme has placed copies at the back of the Conference Room. The paper is also available on the web site of the National Council on Disability: www.ncd.gov. |
A Profile of the World Blind Union
The World Blind Union (WBU) is the only organisation entitled to speak on behalf of blind and partially sighted persons of the world, representing 180 million blind and visually impaired persons from about 600 different organisations in 160 countries. WBU has consultative status within the UN Agencies and ECOSOC.
WBU was formed in recognition of the fact that society does not take account of the rights of blind and partially sighted people. The WBU believes that human rights should be accorded to all people fully and without restriction regardless of disability, race, colour, gender, language, religion, political opinion, national or social origin, birth or other status.
This Bulletin was sponsored by the following group of non-governmental organizations, who are committed to the development of a strong and effective international convention on the human rights of people with disabilities and a process for its development that is transparent, inclusive and participatory. If your organization would like to add its name to this group, please contact Elaine Belmear at ebelmear@att.net. If you have suggestions for the Bulletin, please contact a member of the Publication Staff.
- American Association of People with Disabilities
- American Council of the Blind
- Council of Canadians with Disabilities
- Center for International Rehabilitation
- Chinese World Federation on Disability
- Disability Awareness in Action
- Disabled Peoples' International
- European Disability Forum
- Inclusion International
- Inter-American Institute on Disability
- Israeli Association Against Psychiatric Assault
- Japanese Federation of the Deaf
- Landmine Survivors Network
- Mental Disability Rights International
- Not Dead Yet
- North Saskatchewan Independent Living Centre Inc.
- Rehabilitation International
- People Who
- Support Coalition International
- United States International Council on Disabilities
- World Blind Union
- World Federation of the Deaf
- World Federation of the Deafblind
- World Institute on Disability
Publication staff:
Joelle Balfe, Campaign Development Group, USA
Elaine Belmear, Landmine Survivors Network, USA
Rosangela Berman-Bieler, Inter-American Institute on Disability, Brazil
Steven Estey, Disabled Peoples' International, Canada
Janet E. Lord, Landmine Survivors Network, USA
Kicki Nordstrom, World Blind Union, Sweden
William Rowland, World Blind Union, South Africa