THE Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations which protects the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.
Governments that signed and ratified the convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law and not asking the disabled to form cooperatives.
The convention is the major catalyst in the global movement from viewing persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment as the case is in Zambia and social protection towards viewing them as full and equal members of society, with human rights.
It is also the only UN human rights instrument with an explicit sustainable development dimension as this is the first human rights treaty of the third millennium.
Mexico initiated negotiations, with active support from the GRULAC (the Latin American regional group.
When support for a convention was foundering in 2002 due to WEOG opposition, New Zealand played a pivotal role in achieving cross-regional momentum.
Acting as facilitator from 2002-03, New Zealand eventually assumed the formal role of chair of an ad hoc committee and led negotiations to a consensus agreement in August 2006, working closely with other bureau members Jordan, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic and South Africa, as well as Korea and Mexico.
The convention became one of the most quickly-supported human rights instruments in history, with strong support from all regional groups.
One hundred and fifty-five states signed the convention upon its opening in 2007 and 126 States ratified it within its first five years.
In recognition of its role in creating the convention, as well as the quality of New Zealand’s landmark national disability strategy, the governor-general of New Zealand Anand Satyanand received the 2008 World Disability Award on behalf of his country.
But employment remained a challenge for persons with disabilities in many countries around the world, including Zambia. In February 2013, a United Nations expert told the Commission for Social Development, as some delegations described national achievements in that field of disability as encouraging.
Dr Shuaib Chalklen, who is outgoing special rapporteur on disability to the commission on social development while presenting his report said that the most important event on the global disability agenda during the reporting period had been last September’s meeting of Heads of State and Government which had adopted an outcome document (General Assembly resolution 68/3) under the theme ‘The way forward, a disability-inclusive development agenda towards 2015 and beyond’.
“The document is so important that I repeat key points,” he said, urging member states to create more ambitious disability-inclusive national development plans prescribing targeted actions, and backed by increasing international cooperation and support.
He also urged member states to implement fully the international normative framework on disability and development, in particular the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol.
The fact that 158 states signed the instrument, which had 141 ratifications and accessions, is a clear indication that the world is moving toward creation of an inclusive society.
Of the 92 signatories to the Optional Protocol, 79 had ratified or acceded to it, giving people with disabilities hope, Dr Chalklen said, stressing the importance of implementing both as “human rights and development instruments”.
He said the document also urged member States to strengthen the inclusion of people with disabilities and their needs in humanitarian responses, and encouraged greater understanding, knowledge and social awareness about them to eliminate discrimination and negative attitudes and facilitate their full participation in society.
The report also called upon regional, as well as international, development banks and financial institutions to integrate disability across their development efforts and lending mechanisms, because persons with disabilities were disproportionately affected during economic crises.
Dr Chalklen further said he had visited several countries his time that include the Republic of Moldova, Croatia, Indonesia, Ethiopia and El Salvador.
He had worked with the United Nations country team and a human rights adviser to help the government of the Republic of Moldova implement articles 12 and 19 of the Disabilities Convention.
One major challenge in that country had been to close facilities for people with disabilities to ensure their full inclusion and participation in the community.
In Croatia the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on disability visited the office of the ombudsman on Disability and learned how an independent ombudsman’s office could play a positive role. A major challenge in El Salvador was the low level of employment for persons with disabilities and lack of relevant data.
He recommended to the Commission that the United Nations focal point for disability with support from other United Nations entities, including regional commissions, take the initiative to establish and improve a mechanism that would better facilitate the sharing of information and experiences among the regional decades for persons with disabilities.
Members of civil society organisations could be invited to contribute where appropriate. He also recommended that member States contribute to the United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability and to the multi-donor trust fund of the United Nations Partnership to promote the rights of persons with disabilities.
He proposed raising greater awareness about the conditions of refugees with disabilities in conflict areas, saying their needs should be taken into account when planning interventions. He also voiced support for the establishment in Geneva of a special procedures mandate on disability.
When asked to describe measures that had met with success, the Dr Chalklen stressed the important role played by focal points, as well as the benefits of an independent ombudsman’s office.
However, efforts to create disability-inclusive societies had been least successful in the area of employment in many countries.
The Commission then began its general debate on the review of United Nations plans and programmes of action pertaining to such social groups as persons with disabilities, youth, older persons and families.
A Ukrainian representative said that over the last five years, more than 725,000 persons with special needs had found employment in her country despite the impact of the world economic crisis.
“It is a substantial number in comparison to those times, when just two decades ago, people with heavy forms of disabilities were prohibited to work,” she noted.
The new national law on employment guaranteed that persons with special needs would receive free public vocational education and re-training, and that their employers would receive subsidies.
The goal was to employ up to 80 per cent of persons with special needs who had received vocational education, she said.
Zimbabwe’s delegate said his government had adopted a policy of equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in the public service.
This entailed mainstreaming disability employment regulations that would ensure that there was no discrimination against that group in terms of conditions of employment and deployment.
Also participating in the discussion were speakers representing Greece (on behalf of the European Union), Kuwait, Russian Federation, Austria, Mongolia, South Africa, Brazil, Qatar, Argentina, Sudan, El Salvador, Thailand, China, Romania, Belgium, Malta, Slovenia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea.
Zambia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Disabled, therefore, cannot depart from developing laws and policies which will create employment for persons with disabilities.
A call to ask persons with disabilities to create employment through formation of cooperatives is discriminatory and should not be supported because disabled people have a right to be employed though sheltered employment or mainstream society.
(For your letters please send to us on P.O. Box 34490 Lusaka, Zambia or use our South African Address. The author is regional disability policy analyst for SADC and inclusive development advisor for Centre for Disability Development Research, Law and Policy, Johannesburg.
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