Potholes and Bridges along the Road to a UN Disability Rights Convention
By Mike Ervin (mervin4241@aol.com)
Marta Russell and Roseangela Berman-Bieler observed the intricacies of the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive
and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights
and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities from different vantage points. Russell, who represented the American Association of People with Disabilities, is a radio and print journalist from Los Angeles and author of "Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract" (Common Courage Press, 1998). She's a radical thinker and sharp writer who has extensively analyzed American and global disability politics, but this was her first chance to see the U.N. process at work first hand.
Because Berman-Bieler, has been directly involved in the international disability rights movement for two decades, as founder of the Independent Living Center of Rio de Janeiro and then as president of the Inter-American Institute on Disability, she's all too familiar with how the U.N. works. At the ad hoc committee meeting she represented the World Bank, where she now consults on how to make accessibility "a natural component" of development projects.
Both Russell and Berman-Bieler came away from the whirlwind feeling a similar mix of optimism and apprehension, satisfaction and disappointment.
Working Group to develop a convention text
In the end, the process was advanced significantly when the ad hoc committee voted to "establish a Working Group with the aim of preparing and presenting a draft text which would be the basis for negotiation by Member States and Observers at the Ad Hoc Committee of the draft convention." The working group is to consist of 27 governmental representatives; 12 more members from Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), "taking into account the diversity of disabilities and of NGOs, ensuring adequate representation of NGOs from developing countries and from all regions;" and 1 representative of national human rights commissions.
(As representatives are named to the Working Group, information is posted to the UN website as follows: www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/adhoccom.htm)
The working group is to have its first meeting early in 2004 at U.N. headquarters in New York and must present a draft to the ad hoc committee at its third meeting.
Berman-Bieler says, "Considering the situation I think we got to a good point." Contentiousness, mainly between developed and developing countries, meant that as time ran out on the final session the agreement to form a working group had still not been reached. The persuasiveness and political skill of ad hoc committee chair, Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, bought the group the few extra minutes needed to reach consensus and go home.
Russell says, "In the end he was the one who pushed it through."
Both women also give Gallegos high praise for ensuring NGOs are well represented in the new working group. Berman-Bieler also hopes more people with disabilities will be at the table as governmental representatives. Though no formal count was conducted, she says it was clear to her that there were many more government delegates with disabilities present than at the first ad hoc committee meeting in 2002.
Substantive dialogue cut off by bureaucracy
But Berman-Bieler was very disappointed that the last minute decision cut off the chance for dialogue on the substance of the convention by the larger group. "The machine is so heavy and so slow and so conservative. We could've started negotiating language, not just pushing it six months ahead. We could've started discussing with everybody together, if not language, something related to the structure of the convention. Everyone was ready to start discussing something much more concrete. By taking it out of this forum you stop the process of building awareness, partnership."
Russell says, "Hopefully someone will leak information along the way."
Both women nevertheless think that a U.N. convention on disability is now inevitable, though the vital details are still bound to be a topic of bitter debate.
What kind of rights will be crucial
The key to a meaningful convention will be the inclusion of "economic and social rights as well as non discrimination " says Russell. Berman-Bieler says the "crucial" point for Latin American and other developing countries, as frequently expressed in caucuses and open sessions at the committee meeting , is that the convention call for international financial support of development projects.
"You can say, 'Okay, the law will guarantee this this this this and that.' But if you don't have the money to make it possible, it won't happen. You can't build a convention on rights if you don't say how the rights will happen. Some people just want to talk about the right to liberty, independence. But in developing countries this is the main part that makes a difference. In these countries disability will never be a priority, because there's so much poverty and hunger and lack of sanitation."
Russell says, "We're still going to be dealing with people who are the poorest of the poor. You can enforce rights only if you have the means to do it. We have to realistically assess what's happening to our people around the world."
U.S. government representative says it won't sign
But some government delegations, as well as some disability organizations, "interpret this as an open door for having these developing countries asking for money," Berman-Bieler says.
This attitude, she says, was illustrated by Ralph Boyd, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, who addressed the Ad Hoc Committee June 18. Boyd said the United States intends to "join constructively in the work of the Committee, and we hope that our national laws will offer a useful model for some aspects of this Committee's work."
Boyd touted the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 as examples of model legislation. But then he said, "Our history, however, shows that while the cause of ensuring and promoting disability rights - indeed, the very integration of persons with disabilities into our society - requires firm commitment, it also requires careful thought. It is the position of the United States today that, given the complex set of regulations needed to canvass this broad area, and the enforcement mechanisms necessary to ensure equal opportunity for those with disabilities, the most constructive way to proceed is for each Member State, through action and leadership at home, to pursue within its borders the mission of ensuring that real change and real improvement is brought to their citizens with disabilities.
"Thus we hope to participate in order to share our experiences - and to offer technical assistance if desired on key principles and elements - but given our comprehensive domestic laws protecting those with disabilities, not with the expectation that we will become party to any resulting legal instrument. This may be true also of other delegations representing States with well developed legal protections."
It was a bombshell but it didn't surprise Russell or Berman-Bieler, considering the refusal of the U.S. to ratify other U. N. Conventions such as the one on the rights of children.
"It's kind of a joke," Berman-Bieler says. But she doesn't think the U.S. position will disturb the momentum toward a convention. "At least they committed not to block the process."
Russell says, "That's probably the best we can hope for unless we get a change in administration."
Author's Footnote: The death of U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello in the August 19 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq could be a major setback to the progress toward a convention on disability.
Last September, Vieira de Mello was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this position, his support was essential to move the convention process forward. Kicki Nordström, Chairperson of the International Disability Alliance, was invited to meet with him on December 3, International Disability Day.
"This in itself, was a recognition of the importance Mr. Vieira de Mello put on issues concerning disabled people," Nordstrom said. " Our meeting was very positive and I left Geneva with a feeling that this was the beginning of an important new phase where we could count on the support from the High Commissioner's Office in our work towards a convention. We were well aware that he got this special appointment in Iraq and were looking forward to his return shortly to Geneva where we could continue our good cooperation."
Nordstrom referred to Vieire de Mello as, "a person genuinely interested in matters
concerning disabled people."
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