UNESCAP Workshop on Regional Follow-up to the Seventh Session and Preparation for the Eighth Session of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly on the Elaboration of a Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
Bangkok, 20-21 July 2006
JOINT STATEMENT ON AN UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS AND DIGNITY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
(Adopted on 21 July 2006)
We the participants, representing Governments, disabled people's organizations (DPOs), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN specialized agencies, and civil society from the Asia-Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, from 20 to 21 July 2006 at the UN ESCAP Workshop on Regional Follow-up to the Seventh Session and Preparation for the Eighth Session of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly on the elaboration of a Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities:
Hereby:
GENERAL
1. Encourage member States to complete their work on the drafting of the Convention in order to enable its adoption by the General Assembly during its 61st session in 2006 and 2007,
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
2. Urge member States to adopt a provision on international cooperation which will be conducive for the realization of the human rights of persons with disabilities and, in particular, assistingdeveloping States in appropriate ways to fulfill their obligations under the Convention. Appropriate measures might include:
(a) Ensuring that international cooperation, including international development programmes, are inclusive of, and accessible to, persons with disabilities;
(b) Facilitating and supporting capacity-building, including through the exchange and sharing of information, experiences, training programmes and best practices;
(c) Facilitating cooperation in research and access to scientific and technical knowledge; and
(d) Providing, as appropriate, technical and economic assistance, including by facilitating access to and sharing of accessible and assistive technologies, and through the transfer of technologies[i],
3. Urge all member States to ensure that disability is included in development assistance programs and other forms of international cooperation as appropriate and, in particular, consult with disabled people's organizations in the design of programs and in the formulation of requests for development assistance,
SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT OF THE CONVENTION
4. Call on member States to ensure:
(a) that any definition of "disability" included in the Convention[ii] should reflect a social model approach;
(b) that the Conventionincludes a definition of "reasonable accommodation" which uses the term "undue hardship" rather than "disproportionate burden" (since reasonable accommodation of the rights of persons with disabilities is inappropriately described as a "burden");
(c) that the Convention reflects current international human rights jurisprudence regarding the nature of economic, social and cultural rights;
(d) that the Convention contains provisions which specifically reflect the rights of women and girls with disabilities and the particular violations to which they are subject, and which recognize that in some societies traditional views of the value and role of women mean that women with disability are devalued as human beings;
(e) that the Convention contains provisions which specifically reflect the rights of children with disabilities and the particular violations to which they are subject,
(f) that the Convention refers specifically to the need to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities in situations of natural or other disasters and emergencies; and
(g) that the Convention contains a provision to ensure that where there is a violation of a right guaranteed under the Convention, the person whose right has been violated will be entitled to an appropriate remedy under national law,
IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING AT THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS
National level implementation and monitoring
5. Welcome the recognition in draft article 33 of the Convention of the primary role of national agencies and institutions in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention at the national level,
6. Suggest that member States consider the inclusion in the Convention of a reference to adoption of a National Action Plan on Disability as a means of giving effect to their obligations under the Convention,
7. Encourage member States to recognize the role that National Human Rights Institutions may play in the implementation of the Convention at the national level, in light of their extensive experience with the promotion of human rights in that context, and to urge those institutions to make disability a priority for action,
8. Encourage member States to promote the participation of persons with disabilities and their organizations in the process of monitoring and implementation of the Convention
9. Urge member States to commence or continue the progress of reviewing existing law, policies and programs, with a view to adopting or enhancing a comprehensive legislative and policy approach to ensuring equality for persons with disability, in particular the adoption of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability and promoting employment and other opportunities for persons with disability,
International monitoring
10. Call on member States to:
(a) adopt[iii] an effective international monitoring procedure for the Convention;
(b) ensure that any monitoring procedure established under the Convention should provide for effective participation by persons with disabilities and their organizations in all aspects of that procedure;
(c) ensure that the monitoring procedures under the Convention draw on the best practices available at the international level, avoid undue duplication with other procedures, and are coordinated with existing procedures;
(d) ensure that, if a unified standing treaty body is eventually established, the functions of the monitoring body under this Convention shall be transferred to that body only if there are sufficient guarantees of the participation of persons with disabilities in the work of such a body, and if the representation of expertise in disability and human rights on that body is guaranteed,
POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES
11. Encourage the UN System including the UN ESCAP, member States, National Human Rights Institutions (as well as the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions), civil society organizations, in particular DPOs and academic institutions, to identify the particular needs for capacity-building (including the need to translate the Convention as soon as possible into the national languages and make it available in accessible formats) that will arise with the adoption of the Convention,
12. Request the UN ESCAP, in collaboration with other partners, to initiate a program of work in preparation for the adoption of the Convention which will
(a) include a study of how the commitments adopted by Governments under documents such as the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society relate to the obligations contained in the new Convention;
(b) as appropriate, enhance the capacity of all the States in the region to assess the steps that they need to take in order to ratify and implement the Convention, and encourage in this regard the sharing of experience between Governments,
(c) ensure that the position of persons with disabilities in situations of risk is fully taken into account, particularly in the context of natural or other disasters and emergencies, to which the Asia-Pacific region is particularly vulnerable;
(d) develop the capacity of civil society organizations to argue for the ratification of the Convention and monitor its effective implementation; and
(e) develop resources for Governments, judicial institutions, national human rights institutions and other civil society institutions in relation to the obligations under and implementation of the Convention.
[i] These sub-paragraphs were derived from draft Article 32 of the "Working Text: International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities," available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc7ann2rep.htm
[ii] Participants noted that conclusion on the inclusion of article on definition of "disability" or "disabled persons" were not reached yet at the Ad Hoc Committee; some participants considered that it was not desirable to include a definition of "disability" in the Convention..
[iii] Some participants in the Workshop proposed replacing the word "adopt" with the phrase "consider adoption of."