IDA Disability Rights Bulletin (June 2011)

Global News

CRPD ratifications reach 102

The ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by Belize on 2 June 2011 and the ratification by Cyprus of the CRPD and the Optional Protocol (OP) on 27 June 2011 brings a total of 102 States Parties to the CRPD, while the OP has 62 ratifications. The signature of the CRPD by Papua New Guinea on 2 June 2011 has increased the number of signatures to the CRPD to 149, while the OP has 90 signatures. Please click the link to check the list of Signatories and State Parties.

State Reports submitted to the CRPD Committee

Azerbaijan has submitted its national report to the CRPD Committee. Spain, Tunisia, Peru, China, Argentina, Austria, Hungary, Paraguay, Australia, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Sweden were the first twelve countries to submit their national reports to the CRPD Committee. Please click here to access the CRPD Committee website section where you can find all reports presented so far to the CRPD Committee.

Final Declaration on HIV

The final declaration of the High-Level Meeting on HIV adopted on 10 June 2011 includes four references to disability. The disability language was included as a result of advocacy work of a broad coalition of HIV, human rights and disability rights organizations, including the International Disability Alliance and Human Rights Watch. This political commitment is an important tool in future advocacy work with the UN system and governments to ensure that persons with disabilities are included in all HIV programs and policies and that all HIV programs and policies are accessible for persons with disabilities. Please click the link to access the final declaration.

Negative developments on the right to vote at the Council of Europe's Venice Commission

The European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission, a body of the Council of Europe which includes members also outside of Europe), is currently considering adopting an interpretive guidance document on voting that would discriminate against persons with disabilities. The Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (Budapest) together with the European Disability Forum held a meeting on 15 June 2011 in Venice in advance of a Venice Commission meeting, with the participation of CRPD Committee member, Gabor Gombos (Hungary). The concluding recommendation to those present was to delete the offending language in advance of the adoption of the interpretive guidance. At its meeting later that week, the Venice Commission

decided to postpone any decision on the draft interpretive declaration until its next meeting in October 2011.

Treaty Bodies

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights held its Pre-sessional Working Group from 23-27 May to adopt Lists of Issues on Argentina, New Zealand, Peru, Slovakia, and Spain. Click here to read IDA’s disability analysis of the adopted List of Issues, here to read IDA’s suggested questions for the List of Issues, here to read the submission on Spain of CERMI, the umbrella group of Spanish organisations of persons with disabilities, and here to read IDA’s disability analysis of those State reports.

The Committee against Torture held its 46th session from 9 May – 3 June to review the reports of Finland, Ghana, Ireland, Kuwait, Mauritius, Monaco, Slovenia, and Turkmenistan. Click here to read the disability analysis of the Concluding Observations. Click here to read the disability analysis of the state reports and here for IDA’s recommendations for the Concluding Observations. The CAT Committee also compiled Lists of Issues with respect to Belarus, Bulgaria, Germany, Morocco, and Sri Lanka. Click here to read the disability analysis of the List of Issues, here for the disability analysis of those state reports and here for IDA’s submission on suggested questions for the Lists of Issues.

From 30 May – 17 June, the Committee on the Rights of the Child held its 57th session and reviewed the reports of Bahrain, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Egypt and Finland. Click here to read the disability analysis of the Concluding Observations. Click here to read the disability analysis of the state reports and here for IDA’s recommendations for the Concluding Observations.The CRC Committee held its Pre-sessional Working Group from 20-24 June to adopt the List of Issues on Azerbaijan, Greece, Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Panama, Seychelles and Togo. These will shortly be posted on their website. To read the disability analysis of these State reports, click here, and to read IDA’s submissions on proposed questions for the List of Issues, click here.

The Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture (SPT) met for its 14th

session from 20-24 June. From 16 – 25 May 2011, the SPT undertook its 12 th

country visit, this time to the Ukraine, where it met with relevant national authorities and representatives of civil society and conducted visits to a number of places of deprivation of liberty. For more information, click here.

The 12th Inter-Committee Meeting (ICM) of UN human rights treaty bodies took place from 27-29 June in Geneva. The meeting was chaired by Professor Ron McCallum of the CRPD Committee. During these days, the ICM held a meeting with the mandate holders of the special procedures where IDA welcomed the proposals for the treaty bodies and mandate holders to engage more actively in an effort to reinforce each others’ recommendations on common issues of concern.  In this context, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women invited the Chair and Vice Chair of the CRPD Committee to join

her and the Special Rapporteur on disability in their discussions on the thematic analytical study on the issue of violence against women and girls and disability mandated by the Human Rights Council during its 17 th session. For further information and to access the working documents, click here.

Human Rights Council

The 17th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) took place from 30 May to 17 June 2011. IDA made statements on violence against women, education, poverty, and delivered a statement on behalf of the Austrian National Council of Persons with Disabilities. In a resolution on violence against women, the HRC called for a thematic study on "women and girls and disability". The HRC also adopted a decision for access to the internet by all, including persons with disabilities. The Council adopted modalities on the establishment of an Office of the President and on the second cycle of the UPR. It created a new two-day annual Forum on Business and Human Rights and adopted the draft optional protocol on a complaint procedure under the CRC. IDA's full report is available here.

Special Procedures

The 18th annual meeting of Special Procedures took place in Geneva from 27 June to 1 July 2011. Issues discussed included improving coordination and follow up of the Special Procedures. The mandate holders held a meeting with NGOs on the afternoon of Thursday, 30 June 2011. IDA attended and thanked the mandate holders for their increasing attention to the rights of persons with disabilities, and made several recommendations including to use non-offensive language in line with the CRPD regarding persons with disabilities, and to make all of their reports accessible in line with outcome of the Human Rights Council review of 2010-2011. IDA's statement is available here.

OHCHR Report 2010

The OHCHR Report 2010 has been recently published. The report assesses progress made in 2010 in implementing the operational plans laid out in the 2010-2011 Strategic Management Plan. The Report gives a significant place to persons with disabilities in Chapter 3, with examples of OHCHR's good practices on the rights of persons with disabilities. IDA welcomes, among other things, the references to some specific groups such as persons with albinism and persons affected by leprosy, that there is a budget line for the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as, the references to the participation of organisations of persons with disabilities. However, IDA regrets that the Report is not in accessible format and has requested to the OHCHR that next year’s version is accessible. The IDA Secretariat, has made an analysis of the disability references and other relevant references included in the report. Please click here to access this analysis.

Upcoming Meetings

The Human Rights Committee will be holding its 102nd session from 11 – 29 July to review the reports of Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Dominica (in the absence of a report). Click here to read the disability analysis of the state reports and here for IDA’s recommendations for the Concluding Observations. It will also be adopting Lists of Issues for the Maldives, Turkmenistan, Iceland and Mozambique (in the absence of a report). Click here to read IDA’s suggested questions for the List of Issues, and here to read IDA’s disability analysis of those State reports.The Human Rights Committee will also continue with its second reading of their draft general comment on freedom of expression. To read the latest draft, click here. To read IDA’s submission on the draft General Comment, click here.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) will be holding its 49th session from 11 – 29 July in New York, in which it will review the reports of Costa Rica, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Italy, Nepal, Korea, Singapore and Zambia. Click here to read the disability analysis of the state reports and here for IDA’s recommendations for the Concluding Observations. On 18 July, the Committee will also be holding a Day of General Discussion to commence the process of elaborating a "General Recommendation on Women in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations." Click here to read IDA’s written submission. For more information on this including how to attend and participate in the Day of General Discussion, please visit the Committee’s website here.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are currently drafting a Joint General Recommendation/Comment on Harmful Practices. The Committees indicate that harmful practices cover traditional or emerging practices prescribed by social norms (often embedded in culture), currently known or unknown, which are perceived to have beneficial effects for the victim, family and/or community, for example, female genital mutilation and forced marriages. Written submissions should be sent in English, French or Spanish by 31 August to cedaw-crc@ohchr.org. For more information, visit the Committees’ website here.

About the IDA Disability Rights Bulletin

This bulletin is intended for experts advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities, in particular within the Geneva-based human rights framework. It is prepared by the IDA Secretariat, which also provides support to the Group of States Friends of the CRPD.

For more information about IDA, its CRPD Forum and its member organisations, please visit: www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org.

Contact us via email at: stromel@ida-secretariat.org .