IWTC Women's GlobalNet #315
Activities and Initiatives of Women
Worldwide
December
21, 2006
By Joeyta Bose
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1.
UN GA PASSES LANDMARK CONVENTION ON RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES |
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The United
Nation’s General Assembly, on December 13, adopted the first-ever convention
that protects the rights of the world’s 650 million persons with
disabilities. Passed after five years of intense lobbying and organization by
persons with disabilities, civil society groups and governments across the
world, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and
Dignity of Persons with Disabilities must now be ratified by 20 countries to
come into force as an international law. The treaty will be open for signature
in March 2007 and countries that sign are urged to ratify it, and must then
adopt laws that conform to the convention’s provisions on prohibiting
discrimination against persons with disability in several spheres, including
education, employment, health and access to information, justice and public
facilities. The treaty also comes with an Optional Protocol that will enable
groups and individuals in countries that sign it, to petition the UN
Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, if they are powerless to
redress grievances against persons with disabilities within their own
countries. Other than
protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, the
convention specifically recognizes and emphasizes the special needs of the
most vulnerable – children with disabilities and women with disabilities –
who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination. The treaty affirms
equality between men and women as one of its guiding principles and, in an
article devoted to the rights of women with disabilities, calls for the
implementation of measures that ensure “the full development, advancement and
empowerment of women” and their equal enjoyment of all human rights and
fundamental freedoms. Particular mention of women with disabilities is made in
sections of the convention that address exploitation, violence, abuse and
social protection and poverty reduction programs. This
attention to the concerns and rights of women with disabilities came about
through the tireless advocacy of a women’s committee that took shape within a
larger union of organizations of and for persons with disabilities, which had
been advocating on the disability convention at the UN. The International
Disability Caucus Women’s Committee, as it was called, worked to ensure that
the rights of women with disabilities were articulated exclusively and
strongly in Article 6, and that they resonated through the rest of the
convention. Disabled People’s
International, one of the organization’s that co-chaired the women’s committee’s,
held several meetings and e-mail discussions so that women from different
regions around the world could have input to this process. Mary Ennis,
Disabled People’s International executive director said "historically,
millions of women with disabilities have been minimized and marginalized,
used and abused. Many of us have been denied our basic human rights on a
daily basis. At long last, with the adoption of the new treaty, our
situation has been acknowledged, and a first giant step has been taken
towards positive change." Now that the
General Assembly has passed this landmark convention, advocacy groups of and
for persons with disabilities, gender justice advocates and all civil society
groups need to support their own governments to ratify it so that it can
become international law. A comprehensive convention ratification toolkit,
assembled by Disabled People’s International, can be found at www.icrpd.net. The toolkit is also available
on a CD and can be requested by writing to info@dpi.org
or Disabled Peoples' International, 902 - 388 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada R3C 0C8. Further
information: -
Resolution text at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcfinalrepe.htm -
Legal background paper on gendering the convention: http://v1.dpi.org/lang-en/resources/topics_detail?page=446 -
Article on women with disabilities organizing at the UN: http://v1.dpi.org/lang-en/resources/topics_detail?page=93 |
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2.
NEW
BOOK ON WOMEN & DISABILITY FEATURED IN WOMEN, INK. CATALOGUE A new book entitled
“Women, Disability and Identity” appears in the Women, Ink. Catalogue, among
some 250 books and training resources on women and development. To receive a free
copy of the catalogue, please send an e-mail with your mailing address to joey@womenink.org or write to: Women, Ink., c/o
International Women’s Tribune Centre, 777 UN Plaza, flr 3, New York, NY
10017. You can also visit
Women, Ink. online at: www.womenink.org |
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