QUINQUENNIUM 1997- 2002
ISSUE-IV JANUARY, 2002
The September 11 tragedy, its aftermath and the repercussions apart, there are some exciting and promising developments regarding disability issues to report on.
Without question, the Resolution, which was finally adopted by all members of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly by consensus at the end of November 2001, is the most exciting and promising bit of good news.
Proposed by Mexico, and originally co-sponsored and supported by only 26 countries, the Resolution calling for a comprehensive and integral international convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities was finally passed without a vote! CONGRATULATIONS all round, and great work, MEXICO and its 26 original backers!
Of the 8 Clauses, the first two read as follows:
1. Decides to establish an Ad Hoc Committee open to the participation of all Member States and observers to the United Nations, to consider proposals for a comprehensive and integral convention to protect and promote the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, based on the holistic approach in the work done in the field of social development, human rights and non-discrimination, taking into account the recommendations of the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission for Social Development;
2. Decides also that, prior to the fifty-seventh session of the Assembly the Ad Hoc Committee shall hold at least one meeting of a duration of ten working days.
This UN General Assembly Special Session on Children was scheduled for September 19 – 21, 2001. It had to be postponed and will now take place from May 8 – 10 this year.
In view of the proposed convention referred to above, it is appropriate to stress, yet again, the urgency for and importance of follow-up action by all concerned and interested parties to ensure a higher priority for children with disabilities within the outcome document. The only chance of highlighting the needs of the disabled population in the final UN document at this late stage is to move heaven and earth and to lobby Country Representatives to the above UNGASS to demand that this be done. If the UN and its Member States are sincere about planning for A World Fit for Children in this 21st Century, then, surely it must ensure greater specific reference to the existence of the hundreds of millions of disabled children and youths, especially in the developing countries, so that their special needs are also automatically provided for in mainstream country planning and programme implementation.
Also during the eventful month of last September, came the promising news that the Director General of UNESCO had established a "Flagship Programme on Education for All and Disabilities". This followed the Second Meeting of the UNESCO Education for All Working Group, which was actually held from September 10 – 12! As a result, the issue of EFA and disability now joins other "flagship" initiatives, including the girl child, teacher training, and early child care and development, for example.
This means that a structure and mechanism have been created for disability issues to be taken up officially in the EFA process, both internationally and nationally. Although a "flagship" programme does not carry any specific budgetary allocation within UNESCO, it enables organizations and individuals, who are willing to collaborate, to join forces in support of quality education for disabled children and adults within the mainstream development agenda of EFA.
In conjunction with the above development, UNESCO has produced a number of interesting and useful materials in the course of last year:
To further strengthen ICEVI’s ties with UNESCO and the WBU, Vice-President Harry Svensson, met with Mr Kenneth Eklindh, Head of Special Education, UNESCO, and WBU’s President, Ms Kicki Nordström, on December 21. Several matters of common interest and concern were shared, including the proposed WBU-ICEVI Joint Policy Paper on Education of Visually Impaired Persons and the cessation of the UNESCO cheques (‘UNUM’). The Principal Office for Asia and the Pacific (PROAP) is currently headed by Mr Sheldon Schaeffer, formerly of UNICEF, New York. Ms Hildegunn Olsen, from its Paris Office, has also joined the staff at PROAP.
ICEVI looks forward to continued and closer collaboration with UNESCO at the international and regional levels.
On the same date that the ICEVI Executive Committee will be meeting in Bensheim, Germany (February 15), by courtesy of CBM International, Mr Bengt Lindqvist, the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability will be presenting his final Report to the UN Commission on Social Development as well as proposed additions to the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
We wish him every success in his endeavours to champion the needs of persons with disabilities as a basic human rights issue in the international arena. We trust too that the presence of the WBU and other INGOs of and for persons with disabilities will give strong support.
A World Health Organisation Consultation "Reviewing CBR" will be held in Helsinki, 6 – 9 October 2002. The review would cover all aspects of CBR and would involve the other UN agencies including the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, and UNHCR. A limited number of disability-related organisations will also be participating.
The expected outcome of the consultation would be a document/report with the general recommendations for the future development of CBR strategies in four principle areas:
Last November 15, WHO released the "International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health" (ICF) Short Version (ISBN 92 4 1545445). "The text represents a revision of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH), which was first published by WHO for trial purposes in 1980. Developed after systematic field trials and international consultation over the past five years, it was endorsed by the Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly for international use on May 22, 2001."
"As a classification, ICF systematically groups different domains for a person in a given health condition (e.g. what a person with a disease or disorder does do or can do). Functioning is an umbrella term encompassing all body functions, activities and participation; similarly, disability serves as an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions."
The International Labour Organisation’s Code of Practice on Managing Disability in the Workplace was adopted by its Governing Body during its meeting from November 1 – 16, 2001. Among other things, the press release states:
"The Code, providing guidance to enterprises on how to recruit people with disabilities and maintain employment for workers who become disabled, is the first of its kind and can be applied by all employers, in both developed and developing countries.
"Many of the obstacles which people face in the search for jobs and at work arise as much, if not more, from social barriers, than from a genuine inability to perform work."
"There are approximately 610 million persons with disabilities in the world today, of whom 386 million are of working age, and 80 per cent live in developing countries, predominantly in rural areas.
"Unemployment among disabled persons is significantly higher than in the workforce as a whole - at least double this rate, but often higher, with some countries reporting a rate as high as 80 per cent of the labour force of disabled persons.
"The overall result is that many disabled persons live in poverty and social exclusion. Their potential contribution is lost - to their own livelihood, to their families, to employers and to society as a whole.
"The Code is part of an increasing recognition that disabled people have a valuable contribution to make to the performance of their employers' enterprises and to the national economy. The support of employers is central in making this possible and a positive strategy on managing disability in the workplace enables employers to benefit from the potential of disabled workers in a variety of ways."
From March 11, the WBU will be holding a series of meetings in Mumbai, one of which will be the Development Strategy Workshop on the 13th and 14th. A number of the leading INGOs have been invited, including ICEVI, which will be represented by Nandini Rawal and me, since I will already be there to represent CBM.
On the 15th, the proposed WBU-ICEVI Terms of Reference for a Joint Position Paper on the Education of Blind and Low Vision Persons will be discussed at the Executive Committee meeting. It is hoped that, in due course, other INGOs in our field will also join in so that a truly united stand can be taken, in terms of Policy and Practice, on this all-important issue, which is so fundamental to the aims and aspirations of all the service organisations involved.
In the above context, it is interesting to note that CBM and Sight Savers have also started a similar exercise between then.
Back to September 2001! As part of the African Decade of Disabled Persons, from the 10th – 14th an International Workshop on Disability Statistics was held in Kampala, Uganda. The main objective of the workshop was to strengthen national capabilities to produce, disseminate and use data on disability for policy development and implementation.
The main topics for discussion were centred on the following:
There is a proposal to have an Arab Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012. No further details are available at the moment.
Last year the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the Resolution, "Towards full citizenship of persons with disabilities through inclusive new technologies."
"New technologies open up endless possibilities potentially leading to a better quality of life. However, due to inappropriate technology design, a form of social exclusion to many people with disabilities could occur. The Council of Europe take the right of all individuals, including persons with disabilities, to equality of opportunity, freedom and choice, independent living, full citizenship and active participation in the life of the community. This includes the right to access to and use of technology."
The highlight of the year was Campaign 2001 for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002 (APDDP). It was held in Hanoi, Vietnam from December 10-15 and attended by over 1,400 delegates from 37 countries and territories within and outside the region, over 1,000 of whom were people with disabilities. Noting that most of the 350,000 million disabled persons in the region are still among the least educated, most impoverished and marginalized or excluded groups who are subject to discrimination, the main Resolutions, in brief:
as well as with extension of interregional support for the African DDP (#8 above) and the proposed Arab DDP (#9 above).
Campaign 2001 was preceded by a day of several Task Force meetings, such as EFA, CBR, ICT, and Training & Employment. On the following day, the 3rd meeting of the ESCAP Thematic Working Group on Disability-related Concerns (TWGDC) was held. Key issues resulting from it were:
This is a reminder of the meetings on Disability-related issues, which have been fixed for October and which were mentioned in the previous issue of the ICEVI NEWSLINE. The International Forum on Disabilities to mark the end of the APDDP, which will evaluate the achievements of the Decade and develop strategies for the Post-Decade Framework and the UN Convention, will comprise the following:
With best wishes,
Bill Brohier