Spotlight: Gerard Quinn and the UN Working Group on a Disability Convention

A first-rate team of legal minds represented Rehabilitation International at the UN Working Group meeting where they played an active role in the important negotiations among governments and disability organizations working to hammer out a draft disability convention text. The meeting, held at the UN Secretariat building in New York from January 5-16, 2004, was attended by all Working Group members: 27 government representatives, 12 non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives and one representative from a national human rights institution. The composition of the 12 NGOs attending the Working Group was recommended at the second Ad Hoc meeting towards a disability convention held in New York in June 2003, and included one representative from each of the International Disability Alliance (IDA) organizations and five regional disability NGO representatives.

RI's Team
Gerard Quinn, an Irish law professor who is a specialist in international disability law, represented Rehabilitation International in January's Working Group meeting. Quinn, who received his doctorate in law from Harvard University with an emphasis on human rights, has worked in the European Commission on European Disability Policy, was the former Director of Research at the Irish government's Law Reform Commission and is currently the Director of the European Commission's Network of Disability Discrimination lawyers throughout Europe, as well as the Director of the Law School at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Photo of Gerard Quinn with colleague at the UN Working Group

Quinn also sits as a member of the European treaty-monitoring body in the Council of Europe, in the field of social rights. His most recent publication, authored with Theresia Degener and others was Human Rights and Disability, a 2002 report for the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, Geneva.

In addition to his legal expertise, Quinn has a very personal connection to disability as his eldest daughter, Niamh (Irish for ray of sunshine), was born with spina bifida in 1989. Following his daughter's birth, Quinn co-authored a book in 1993 on US, Canadian and Australian discrimination laws and was subsequently appointed by the Irish government to a high level commission of inquiry into the status of persons with disabilities in Ireland.

As a well-respected leader on disability and law in Ireland, Quinn attended the first UN Ad Hoc meeting towards a disability convention (July 29-August 9, 2002) as a member of the Irish government delegation, and was delighted to accept RI's invitation to participate in the Working Group meeting this January as RI's representative.

Three people assisted Quinn during the two-week meeting: Rosemary Keyess, Aaron Dhir, and Mariyam Cementwala. Rosemary Keyess is an Australian lawyer and lecturer with a disability who has been involved in disability issues for the past 15 years. She served as the Chairperson of the Disability Discrimination Legal Center, a focal point for the implementation of Australian disability law through the provision of both legal and policy advice. More recently she taught social sciences and policy at the University of New South Wales in Sidney. Keyess attended the second Ad Hoc meeting in 2003 and plans to return for the third Ad Hoc meeting in May 2004.

Aaron Dhir practiced law in Toronto, Canada, for four years, spending much of that time representing people with disabilities at, for example, involuntary commitment hearings. His interest in disability as a human rights issue was sparked during this time and he moved to the U.S. to study for a master's in law at New York University. Dhir's master's thesis is on the Convention and its particular application to those with mental disabilities.

Mariyam Cementwala, who has a political science background from the University of California at Berkeley, studied under Quinn for her George A. Mitchell master's in law degree looking at human rights and disability law, and focusing specifically on non-discrimination. She is currently writing her thesis on the Convention process. Cementwala, who has a visual disability, previously worked with the World Bank doing research on inclusive education and children with disabilities.

Work Towards a Convention
The Working Group made good progress over the two-week meeting and Quinn felt that the NGO representatives succeeded in having a positive influence on the text by building bridges with national delegations. RI, as represented by Quinn, made extensive interventions, which were widely supported by the Working Group. RI was also active both in open sessions and in the numerous smaller meetings.

Quinn feels that between now and the next Ad Hoc meeting in May 2004 it is imperative for NGOs to look at the draft Convention text from a legal point of view as many national delegations will be revisiting the draft text, especially the positive elements currently included. Much legal homework needs to be done to protect these positive elements.

Specifically, Quinn feels there are three important issues that should be addressed by NGOs before the next Ad Hoc meeting in May:

• State obligation and whether the definition of discrimination is such that failure to achieve reasonable accommodation itself amounts to discrimination. (RI members might be particularly interested in article 21 dealing with health and rehabilitation, also the concept of living independently figures prominently in draft article 15. The issue of discrimination also appears in draft article 7, paragraph 4 and in the footnote.)
• International cooperation and whether it should focus on knowledge transfer as well as or instead of wealth transfer, and whether nations should have an obligation to proof their development aid programs from a disability perspective.
• Monitoring mechanisms and whether/how the convention should include domestic as well as international mechanisms. Also, people need to look at the link between international monitoring and existing UN human rights treaties as well as at the work of other UN specialized agencies.

A copy of the draft Convention text can be found at www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/.

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