JFActivist

The Fight to Ratify the U.N. Disability Rights Treaty

From the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights:

The Fight to Ratify the U.N. Disability Rights Treaty: Can the U.S. Both Teach and Learn?


By Adina Appelbaum

A RatifyNow panel in Washington D.C. on June 3 addressed the need for the United States to ratify an international treaty on disability rights.

RatifyNow is an international nonprofit organization that supports grassroots efforts to ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), a United Nations treaty that took effect on May 3 for participating countries. The U.S. has not yet ratified the treaty.

Don MacKay, chairman of the U.N. committee that negotiated the treaty, said the treaty's goal is to "elaborate in detail the rights of persons with disabilities and set out a code of implementation."

Many of the speakers at the panel said that it is uncharacteristic of the U.S. to refuse to ratify the treaty since it is the first ever international human rights treaty to protect people with disabilities and is partially inspired by the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. In fact, Prof. Michael Stein, executive director of the Harvard Project on Disability, said that the treaty "squares nicely with U.S. law."

The event marked the launch of RatifyNow's campaign to urge Congress to ratify the treaty.  More than two-thirds of U.N. member nations have already signed or ratified the treaty...

...Read more.

U.N. Issues Stamp Set Commemorating Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

From the United Nations Postal Administration:

On 6 June 2008, the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) will issue six commemorative stamps in the denominations of US$ 0.42, US$ 0.94, CHF 1,00, CHF 1,80, € 0,55 and € 1,40 on the theme “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 during the sixty- first session of the General Assembly, by resolution 61/106. In accordance with its article 42, the Convention was opened for signature by all States and by regional integration organizations at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 30 March 2007.

The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to exercise their rights effectively and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

There are eight guiding principles that underlie the Convention and each one of its specific articles:

1. Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons
2. Non-discrimination
3. Full and effective participation and inclusion in society
4. Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity
5. Equality of opportunity
6. Accessibility
7. Equality between men and women
8. Respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and respect for the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities

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• Buy the stamps.

House Resolution Calls for Ratification of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities!

On May 1, the House of Representatives introduced House Resolution 1169, "expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States should become an international human rights leader by ratifying and implementing certain core international conventions."

Amongst those international conventions specifically mentioned was the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

From the resolution:

"Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that—

(1) the United States recommits to fighting discrimination, xenophobia, human and civil rights abuses in both domestic and foreign policy;

(2) the United States should give thorough review to domestic policy and legislative proposals that would improve the rights and lives of marginalized communities within the United States;

(3) the Senate should give its advice and consent to the ratification of the... UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol..."

...Read the rest of the resolution.             

"Globalizing a Response to Disability Discrimination"

On April 24, 2008, Former Attorney General of the United States and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dick Thornburgh, delivered a keynote address to a symposium on "Framing Legal and Human Rights Strategies for Change: A Case Study of Disability Rights in Asia" at the University of Washington School of Law.

From his speech:

"...Naturally, a great deal of our focus at this gathering will be upon the recently-adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a truly significant accomplishment for the international community and a great source of hope for people with disabilities everywhere. But between the adoption of the convention and the actual securing of the important rights it guarantees lies a long and tortuous path which will test the commitment, tenacity and political will of the international community—from national leaders to grass roots advocacy organizations to individual citizens bent upon justice for all..."

...Read the entire speech.

RatifyNow Blogswarm for Worldwide Rights of People with Disabilities

From RatifyNow.org:

From Australia ... from the USA ... from India ... from New Zealand ...
from Fiji ... from the Philippines ...

Writers and bloggers from around the world joined together to help celebrate and promote the first legally binding international human rights instrument to protect the rights of people with disabilities -- the international disability rights treaty, called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

They celebrated by writing blog posts for the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008.

What did they write about?  Some of the topics include ...

• The story of one advocate who watched the birth of the CRPD among grassroots advocates with disabilities and others in the 1990s ...
• How the CRPD could deliver new hope for people in India with mental disabilities ...
• How the CRPD represents an evolution from the charity/medical model of disability to the social or human rights-based model ...
• How the CRPD could make travel go a little more smoothly for tourists with disabilities ...
• Why the CRPD matters for people who use personal assistance services or who are seeking the freedom to explore their own sexual expression ...
• An allegorical tale about farmers, spoons, and plows: Why the CRPD is well worth celebrating and why our work isn't done just because the CRPD is about to take full legal force ...
• And more ...

Celebrate and learn about the CRPD through the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008.

Why the United States Should Ratify the UN CRPD

In response to the RatifyNow "blogswarm" invitation, Erin Martz has contributed the following piece on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Guest Column
by Erin Martz, Ph.D., C.R.C.
Rehabilitation Counseling Program
University of Memphis

Why the United States should ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN CRPD):

The United States (U.S.) was viewed as one of the leaders in disability rights by the passage of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) of 1990 and its subsequent struggles to implement the ADA.

However, if the U.S. fails to ratify the UN CRPD, I believe that the U.S. will no longer be on the cutting edge of disability rights. While some may argue that the ADA is sufficient, I would assert that the 50 articles of the UN CRPD are much more comprehensive in nature and are sorely needed, due to the comprehensive nature of the stigma, negative stereotyping, and attitudinal barriers that are created and maintained by the general population. Discrimination fundamentally occurs as a reaction to and intolerance of the existence of disabilities. Thus, the CRPD is needed as a clear statement of rights of a discriminated group.

The largest minority in the U.S. is people with disabilities. Therefore, let us ratify the UN CRPD in the U.S., in order to protect the rights and encourage the growth of individuals with disabilities into their full potential as humans.

BLOG SWARM! Blogging for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

From RatifyNow.org:

Join the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008!

By Andrea Shettle, MSW

GET READY TO SWARM!
Join the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008!

Calling all bloggers, vloggers, and other writers!

• Do you regularly blog (or vlog) about human rights? Or disability? Or both?
• Are you someone who cares about the international disability rights treaty (called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD), its success, and its broad adoption?

If so, please participate in the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008, scheduled for March 30, 2008!

What’s a blog swarm?
A blog swarm is when many bloggers and vloggers agree to write blog posts, or make blog videos, on the same theme at about the same time. Writers who don’t have a blog can ask someone who does to publish their post for them. A blog swarm can increase public awareness of an issue and can sometimes stimulate media interest in the topic.

Why Does the CRPD Matter?
If you have a disability or know people who do, then you know that the human rights of people with disabilities around the world are violated every day. In many countries with no disability rights laws, 90% of disabled children receive no education. People with disabilities may encounter doctors who simply assume they’d rather be dead than disabled—and make medical choices accordingly. Disabled people are more vulnerable to abuse and violence. And some have been sterilized against their will, or institutionalized without their consent.

The international disability community has been working with the human rights community and the United Nations for more than 30 years to change that. Together, they have created the first comprehensive, international treaty to protect a broad range of human rights of people with disabilities: the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD).

Celebrate the CRPD Anniversary With a Blog Swarm!
At last, these efforts are about to bear fruit. The CRPD was first opened for countries to sign on March 30, 2007, last year. So far, 17 countries have ratified it.

After the 20th country ratifies the CRPD, it will enter full legal force. Odds are good this will happen sometime soon after March 30, 2008—the first anniversary of the CRPD.

In honor of that anniversary, the grassroots organization RatifyNow.org will be hosting a blog swarm on March 30, 2008, called the “RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008″. Please help make the blog swarm a success!

As the “host” for UN CRPD Blog Swarm 2008, RatifyNow.org will collect all the links to all the blog posts submitted for the blog swarm and make them available in one location.

Great! How Can I Show Support?
Have a blog? At any time between now and March 27, 2008, write a short blog post to share your thoughts about the CRPD and its first anniversary. Post it. Then send the link (with your screen name and the name of your blog) to RatifyNow@gmail.com. Links to video clips are also welcome (spoken or signed). If you provide video, however, please make an effort to include a transcript.

Even if you don’t want to write or vlog about the CRPD, you can still help by recruiting other bloggers and writers. Copy and paste this announcement into your blog or web site and encourage people to participate. Consider offering to host other people’s blog posts.

Read more detail about the RatifyNow CRPD Blog Swarm 2008 at RatifyNow.org. This web site is also a great one-stop shop to learn more about the CRPD or about disability rights before you start writing.

Email us and let us know you’ll be participating. Then send your submissions by March 27, 2008 to RatifyNow@gmail.com. Please include the phrase BLOG SWARM at the start of your subject line.

Then, of course, come back to RatifyNow.org to read what other participants say about the CRPD—and encourage your readers to do the same! The Swarm officially opens March 30, 2008 in New Zealand time, meaning it will still be March 29 in most other parts of the world.

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MORE INFORMATION:

For more information as it becomes available will be posted on the RatifyNow.org website here.

Guinea Ratifies, Benin and UAE Sign UN Convention

From RatifyNow.org:

Guinea Ratifies, Benin and United Arab Emirates Sign, CRPD

By Andrea Shettle, MSW | February 11, 2008

The disability communities in three countries have reason to celebrate: Guinea, Benin, and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Guinea has now ratified both the international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the accompanying Optional Protocol. This brings the total number of countries ratifying the CRPD to 16 and the total number of countries ratifying the Optional Protocol to 10. The CRPD needs to be ratified by 20 countries before it and the Optional Protocol can take full legal force.

In addition, Benin has signed both the CRPD and the Optional Protocol. United Arab Emirates also signed the CRPD, but not the Optional Protocol. Guinea, Benin, and UAE all ratified or signed these international treaties on February 8, 2008. These newest signatures brings the total number of signatories for the CRPD to 125 countries, and the total number of signatories for the Optional Protocol to 70 countries...

...Read the rest of this RatifyNow news post.

RatifyNow, Not Later

[This month, AAPD's entry on National Public Radio (NPR)'s Talking Justice blog site highlights RatifyNow, a new grassroots advocacy organization working to maximize the number of nations that ratify the United Nation's new disability rights treaty.Magar and Rosen are disability rights lawyers and members of RatifyNow (as is AAPD). They participated in the treaty negotiations at the U.N. that produced the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.]:

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RatifyNow, Not Later 

By Michele Magar & Jeff Rosen

When people ask me why the new disability rights treaty matters, I cite statistics. I talk about the fact that 90 percent of kids with disabilities in developing nations don't receive an education. And that in far too many nations, people with disabilities don't have even fundamental rights, like the rights to marry, own property, sign contracts, vote, work, and retain custody of their children.

But what matters most about the treaty is its potential to spark grassroots disability rights movements throughout the world. Like any civil or human rights law, a human rights treaty is only a set of words on paper. But those words contain seeds that, when nurtured, birth passionate movements for equality.

America's disability rights movement illustrates my point.  When Congress enacted the Rehabilitation Act of 1973--which barred recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of disability--it never imagined that people with disabilities were so eager for their rights, that they would occupy the federal building in San Francisco for 26 days to force the government to finally issue implementing regulations in 1977.

The movement picked up steam after Congress guaranteed children with disabilities the right to attend public school and receive the accommodations they needed to benefit from their education.  Armed with an education and new advocacy skills, people with disabilities firmly gathered the reins of their movement, and "Nothing about us without us!" became their rallying cry.

...Read the rest of the blog entry and learn what you can do today to show support of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Youth-Friendly Version of UN Convention Seeking Youth Input

From UNICEF:

UNICEF is calling all young people to contribute their ideas to the child-friendly text of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention is an agreement between countries to make sure that children and adults with disabilities are treated fairly and in the same ways as same as other people. We want you and other young people to know about it.

This online discussion gives you the opportunity to comment on the child-friendly text. Your contribution will help to put the Convention into the hands of children and young people. This way they will know what governments have promised to do to make sure that every child with disability has what it needs to grow, play, participate and go to school, and to reach its full potential as others.

Child friendly text of the Convention [Word] [PDF]

Instructions:

• Online: Read the Child friendly text of the Convention, fill in the online questionnaire below and click on submit.
• Focus group:  Print out the questions, talk to young people and return the answers to voy@unicef.org, with "Child Friendly Convention" in the subject line. Use the Facilitator's Guide for help with conducting a focus group.

Deadline:

• Please submit your answers by November 9, 2007