UN ESCAP Workshop on Women and Disability: Promoting Full Participation of Women with Disabilities in the Process of Elaboration on an International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
18-22 August 2003, Bangkok, Thailand

Text Version of a presentation:

Human Rights and Disabilities: Where do disabilities fit into the UN Human Rights System?

UN OHCHR Presentation

Related: Where to Find Human Rights Resources in Asia Pacific

What are human rights?

• Human rights are fundamentally protected by human rights law.
• We are all protected by human rights law simply because we are human.
• Human rights standards bind governments and increasingly non- state actors.
• Human rights standards dictate what a state must do to protect its citizens and thereby regulate power relationships between the state and the citizen.

Some Human Rights principles

Universality - Human rights belong to all human beings simply because they are human.

Indivisibility - Economic, social, civil and political rights are inextricably linked.

Interdependence - Human rights reinforce and affect each other

Accountability - Rights imply duties and imply that these duties must be fulfilled.

Attention to vulnerable groups - Priority attention should be given to those facing special obstacles for the realization of human dignity

Source: UNDP Philippines Rights-based Development Training Manual

Some Human Rights principles

Non-discrimination

• Common to all human rights treaties: on the grounds of sex, age, national or social origin, political or other opinion, disability, etc.
• Linked to equality and special attention to vulnerable groups:
  • Sometimes equal treatment reinforces inequality: substantive equality requires special attention to vulnerable groups and even temporary measures of protection (affirmative action) - e.g. women;

Normative Base: Art. 7, UDHR; Art. 2(2), ICESR; Arts. 2(1), Art. 20(2), ICCPR; Art. 6(1), Right to Development; Art. 1,3,4, CERD; Arts. 1,2,4,7, CEDAW; Art. 2, CRC

UN Human Rights Standards

Some non-treaty standards and norms relating to disabilities

• World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons
• Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities
• Principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care
• Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons
• Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons

The core UN human rights treaties

The right to education

Functioning educational institutions and programmes

• Availability (adequate infrastructure, trained teachers, teaching materials)
• Accessibility
  1. Non discrimination
  2. Physical and safe accessibility
  3. Economic accessibility (affordability)
• Acceptability and adaptability (education culturally appropriate and of good quality; flexible, adaptable to the needs of a changing society)

Normative Base: Art. 26, UDHR; Art. 13, ICESCR; Art. 8(1), Right to Development; Art. 5(e)(v), CERD; Art. 10, CEDAW; Arts. 28,29, CRC

A common challenge

"We don't have the resources to give houses, secondary education, television sets etc. to everyone"

But...

• Human rights are minimum, not maximum. States can prioritize and gradually realize rights.
• But states must not go backwards, must not discriminate. Must respect "core content"

"Creatures" in the UN Human Rights System

INTER-GOVERNMENTAL - Representing states

EXPERT - "personal capacity;" chosen by inter- governmental body

JUDICIAL - the judge!

INTERNATIONAL 'CIVIL SERVICE' - UN agencies

Civil Society

UN Human Rights System

UN Human Rights System

Intergovernmental

• Security Council
• General Assembly
• Commission on Human Rights
  (studies, drafts, sends investigators, resolutions)

Experts

• Treaty Bodies
  (examine written State reports, interprets treaties)
• Special Rapporteurs/Working Groups (called "Special Procedures")
  (visit countries, urgent appeals, recommendations)
• Sub-Commission
  (studies, drafts Instruments)

UN Human Rights System

Judicial

• International Criminal Court
• Ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals (Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda)
• International Court of Justice

'International Civil Service'

• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Funds and Programs (eg. UNDP, UNICEF, WFP…)

Core human rights treaties and their monitoring bodies

Human Rights Treaty Bodies

• 10-23 individual experts
• Meet 2-3 times per year for 2-3 weeks, in Geneva or New York
• Functions:
  • Examine state party reports every 2-5 years and make "concluding observations"
  • Make "general comments" that explain meaning of articles
  • Some receive individual complaints
  • CEDAW/CAT can investigate "systematic" violations

UN Commission on Human Rights

• Principal UN human rights body
• 53 member states elected every two years
• Meets six weeks every year, March-April, in Geneva

It:

• Debates/passes resolutions on countries & themes
• Drafts international human rights treaties/declarations
• Sends fact-finders to countries (Special Rapporteurs)
• Appoints Thematic Experts to study subjects, make recommendations

Resolutions of the Commission

The Commission on Human Rights has made several resolution relating to people with disabilities.

Resolution 2003/49 refers to the work of OHCHR, Governments, civil society, intergovernmental organisations, treaty bodies and Special Rapporteurs, DESA, Ad hoc Committee and the General Assembly.

Resolutions were also made by the Commission in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Thematic Experts of the Commission

• 27 themes - newest is on right to health
• Individual Experts (Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives and Independent Experts) or Working Groups - five experts for one mandate
• Part-time, unpaid. Personal capacity. Usually 3 year mandate
• Functions:
  • visit countries and write reports
  • write annual reports with studies/recommendations
  • some receive complaints and send urgent appeals

Thematic Experts of the Commission

Experts and disabilities

The experts on the following issues made reference to disabilities in their annual report to the 2003 Commission on Human Rights:

• Education
• Adequate housing
• Health
• Independence of judges and lawyers
• Mercenaries
• Migrant workers

Country experts of the Commission

• Special Rapporteurs and Special Representatives of the S-G
• Current country mandates:
  • Afghanistan
  • Burundi
  • Cambodi
  • Haiti
  • Iraq
  • Myanmar
  • Somalia
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia · Democratic Republic of the Congo (ex-Zaire) · Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
• Functions:
  • fact-finding on human rights situation in the country
  • making recommendations to the government and the Commission on Human Rights

Special Rapporteur for disability

Special Rapporteur for disability

• Appointed by and reports to the Commission for Social Development
• Invited to address Commission on Human Rights

Ms. Sheikha Hessa is the current Special Rapporteur for disability.

Functions:

• monitor the implementation of the Standard Rules
• to advance the status of people with disabilities throughout the world.

Activity

1. Read the document "Extract from the Reports of the Experts of the 2003 Commission on Human Rights".
2. In groups consider - Is this document complete?
   1. Are the references to people with disabilities accurate and in depth enough?
   2. Should other thematic experts have included people with disabilities in their reports?
      (You may wish to refer to the fact sheet "Country/thematic Experts of the Commission on Human Rights".)
3. Consider how you could assist the Special Rapporteurs to better include people with disabilities in their future reports.

Return to top

Copyright (c) 2003 Vision Office.
Last updated 08/14/03. Contact: info @ visionoffice.com