Women and Disabilities Workshop - Materials: Background and Issues

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Background and issues associated with elaboration of an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

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Background and issues associated with elaboration of an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

Kay Nagata
UN ESCAP

When the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted in 1982 the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons with the goals of “full participation” of disabled persons in social life and development and “equality” it provided the international community with a comprehensive framework for advancement of persons with disabilities in the context of development.

Equality is a fundamental concern of the World Programme and is reflected in its “equalization of opportunities” objective. Equality is defined in the World Programme with reference to parity with opportunities available to the entire population.

The report of the Stockholm expert meeting in 1987 recommended that the “General Assembly … draft an international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against disabled persons, to be ratified by States by the end of the Decade [in 1992].”

At its forty-second (1987) and forty-fourth (1989) sessions the General Assembly had draft texts of conventions on the rights of persons with disabilities submitted for consideration. However, the summary records of the time indicate that Member States generally were of the view that more studies and information were required on the question. The General Assembly did not reject proposals presented at its forty-second and forty-fourth sessions related to elaboration of a convention on rights of persons with disabilities.

The ECOSOC authorized the Commission, in Council resolution 1990/26 of 24 May 1990, to initiate work related to elaboration of non-binding standard Rules on equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities. Council resolution 1991/9 of 30 May 1991 welcomed the initiative of the Commission for Social Development to elaborate “standard technical Rules on the equalization of opportunities for disabled persons.”

These efforts resulted in the decision of the General Assembly to adopt by resolution 48/96 of 20 December 1993 the “Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities”.

The 22 Rules provide normative guidance in policy-making and for technical and economic cooperation; the Rules are in four chapters: (a) preconditions for equal participation, (b) target areas for equal participation, (c) implementation measures, and (d) monitoring mechanism.

The “monitoring mechanism” is one of the most innovative aspects of the non-binding Standard Rules.

Mr. Lindqvist submitted three monitoring reports during his service as Special Rapporteur for the period 1994-2002, whose findings and recommendations have implications for the elaboration of a convention.

The Special Rapporteur remarked on the need for the human rights perspective to be more developed in the context of the Rules and for greater attention to be directed to issues related to children with disabilities, gender, shelter and housing.

urged Governments to further the effective implementation of the Standard Rules and to emphasize the dimension of human rights, including that dimension for persons with developmental and psychiatric disabilities;
also urged Governments to give full attention to a gender perspective in all policies and programmes related to disability;

With regard to further development of human rights and persons with disabilities, the Special Rapporteur noted that the process of elaborating an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities may take several years and that it is important to use the momentum to develop the disability dimension within existing United Nations human rights monitoring systems. The Special Rapporteur recommended a “twin track” approach to further development of human rights and persons with disabilities.

During the General Debate of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly (2001) Mr. Vicente Fox Quesada, President of Mexico, presented the proposal to initiate elaboration of a comprehensive and integral convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.

President Fox presented this proposal in the context of a call to the international community to combat poverty and social exclusion (Maxico draft)

The first session of the Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution 56/168 had for its consideration both the “Elements” paper presented at the Mexico expert meeting and “Position papers” on the convention submitted by China and by the European Union.

General Assembly resolution 57/229 provides important guidance on further elaboration of a comprehensive and integral international convention. The resolution:

encourages States to hold meetings or seminars to contribute to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee;
invites the regional commissions and intergovernmental organizations, within their respective mandates, to make available to the Ad Hoc Committee suggestions and possible elements to be considered in proposals for a convention;
urges that further efforts be made to ensure the active participation of non-governmental organizations in the Ad Hoc Committee;
encourages Member States to involve persons with disabilities, representatives of disability organizations and experts in the preparatory processes contributing to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee, . . .

Expert Group Meeting and Seminar on an International Convention to Protect and Promote the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

Bangkok, Thailand, 2-4 June 2003

Outcome: Bangkok Recommendations, submitted to the Second Session of Ad-Hoc Committee on the Convention, held in NY, 16-27 2003 by UN ESCAP.

By the 2^nd session of the Ad Hoc Committee, a working group to prepare the draft text of Convention was adopted.

There are a lot of challenges and long term steps ahead of us.

Preamble
Statement of objectives and general principles
Scope/Definitions (including definitions of disability and discrimination)
General obligations of States Parties to respect and ensure the rights guaranteed in the Convention
Guarantee of equality and non-discrimination (statement of gender equality)
Guarantees of specific rights
Other State obligations
Monitoring mechanisms
Miscellaneous provisions

Critical review of the Bangkok Recommendations from a gender perspective:

Group one: Nature of the Convention, Structure, Preamble, Definitions, and Accessibility.
Group two: General State obligations (guarantee of equality and non-discrimination, guarantees of specific rights; and other states obligations);
Group three: Monitoring mechanisms and participation of women with disabilities

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