Report Ranks Human Rights of Disabled Americans in 24 Countries

The Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR) presented to the United Nations August 24, 2004 the inaugural report of the International Disability Rights Monitor (IDRM) documenting the situation of people with disabilities in 24 countries of South and North America.

• The United States, Canada and Brazil ranked among the most inclusive countries in the report, while
• Bolivia, El Salvador and Guatemala scored among the lowest.

This is the first report of the International Disability Rights Monitor (IDRM), a groundbreaking initiative by the CIR and other members of the disability community to document and assess disability rights and abuses in every country across the globe. The report provides vital data about disability rights just as the United Nations begins two weeks of historic meetings to debate the proposed International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

(For a copy of the full report, visit CIR's website, go to the IDRM Americas 2004 Web page http://www.cirnetwork.org/idrm/reports/americas/index.html.)

The data in the report was compiled over the past 12 months by 32 IDRM researchers who assessed legal protections, education and employment, accessibility, and health and housing services for people with disabilities in South and North America. The second IDRM report detailing treatment in Asia Pacific will be released on the International Day of the Disabled, December 3rd.

"Our commitment to the principle of the universality of the human rights, of which the rights of persons with disabilities is an inalienable and integral part, is deeply rooted in the goals of the United Nations. The main objective now is to build an international convention that will help ensure equal rights and protections to the millions of people around the world living with a disability. We are grateful to the CIR for leading this important initiative" said Luis Gallegos, Ecuador's Ambassador to the UN and Chairman of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on an International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

The Special UN Rapporteur on Disability, Sheikha Hissa bint Ahmed bin Khalifa Al Thani added, "We must also ensure that the disability community at all levels - as experts, academics, politicians, or ordinary people - are able to monitor and report on the progress - as well as obstacles - in implementation of such instrument."

More than 400 people representing governmental and non-governmental agencies from around the world are gathered in New York through September 3 for the Ad Hoc Committee Meeting on an International Convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 600 million people throughout the world live with a disability. At present, the treatment of people with disabilities varies widely from country to country. Some nations have model legislation that mandates the fair and equal rights of people with disabilities to access, education and employment; other countries subject people with disabilities to horrific and degrading treatment, warehousing them in institutions designed to remove them from society.

Highlights from the IDRM report include:

• Only five countries in the Americas have attained Most Inclusive Nation status, while nine are identified as Least Inclusive Nations.
• The national constitutions of 50% of countries in the region specifically protect the rights of people with disabilities.
• Less than one third of all children with disabilities are likely to attend school, and close to 70% of people with disabilities do not have jobs.
• Serious human rights violations are reported in some institutions. People with disabilities have been kept in rooms soiled with their own feces, while others were denied clothing or forced to eat off the floor.

"The information in the IDRM report is vital to the passage of the proposed Convention on disability rights and we are extremely grateful to the dozens of researchers in South and North America who worked tirelessly to collect this data," said Dr. William Kennedy Smith, Founder and Chairman of the CIR. "The tremendous disparity in disability law from one country to the next is astounding. The only way to ensure that every government in the world provides equal treatment and respect to its citizens with disabilities is to hold them accountable to a set of standards established through a Convention."

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