Recent weeks have seen a fair amount of activity related to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – a number of the key milestones and events are outlined here.
The United Nations convened the 4th session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the CRPD. Unlike other treaties, the COSP meets every year. There were over 600 participants in this year’s “Enabling Development, Realizing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through Participation, Employment and International Cooperation” themed COSP session. Attendees represented governments, UN agency family members, the international disability community, and members of civil society.
During the three-day session, the COSP focused on a number of formal and informational interventions. Focused on inclusive development, the first roundtable session allowed for a discussion of how to realize the CRPD through international cooperation. During the discussion, Article 32 of the CRPD and the role of international cooperation were reaffirmed, and new modalities for providing aid to meet the needs of mainstream disability in development were addressed.
The second roundtable discussion focused on ensuring effective and full participation of individuals with disabilities in public and private life, as addressed in Article 29 of the CRPD. This session focused on identifying the progress made to date and barriers to political and public participation that still exist. Strategic recommendations were made to ensure the realization of disability-inclusive and accessible political progress. One of the primary concerns addressed was a lack of physical accessibility, which continues to be a major barrier to the full and effective inclusion of individuals with disabilities in public and political life. In order for the CRPD to be fully implemented, participants noted, individuals with all types of disabilities, including those with psycho-social or cognitive disabilities, must not be deprived of access to the political process.
In addition to the formal roundtable discussions, an informal session was held to discuss individuals’ with disabilities right to employment. Participants noted that individuals with disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed than their peers without disabilities. The importance of comprehensive reforms, including development strategies to ensure accessible labor markets, the need for a firm policy framework against discrimination, and the importance of enforcing accessibility and education were all discussed.
The United Nations system also provided a presentation on their implementation of the CRPD, and outlined how UN programs had been used to ensure its implementation in countries and regions worldwide. The role of the UN organizations in fostering collaboration among governments, UN entities, and civil society to further the promotion of the CRPD was highlighted.
The 6th session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, held between September 19 ad 23, followed the COSP. The opening session of the Committee meeting was led by Chairman Ronald McCallum, who provided and update on the number of countries who had submitted initial reports during 2011. Since the Committee meeting held in April, 16 reports had been received by the Secretariat, including Mexico, Korea, Belgium, and Ecuador.
The Chairman went on to address the Committee’s need to increase the number of reports. Mr. McCallum suggested an examination of collaboration across treaty bodies, particularly the Human Rights Council. Further, he stressed that the Committee had emerged as a group whose central purpose was to conduct constructive dialogues with States parties, and to work alongside national human rights agencies and civil society. To date, Spain’s report is the second of the 16 submitted to be considered, and a list of issues related to the reports of Peru and China have been adopted.
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