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September 09, 2011
UN conference on disabled to focus on protecting rights, promoting development
The following information was downloaded from the mailing list of "Disability and Development" with a cooperation of the publisher, Mr. Soya Mori.
14:03, September 07, 2011
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Representatives from member states, civil society, and the UN system will attend a meeting beginning on Wednesday on the rights of the disabled and how empowering disabled people can enhance international development.
Officials briefed the press here on Tuesday on the Fourth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which runs from Sept. 7-9.
"The Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is unique in the family of human rights instruments," said Maria Larsson, Swedish minister for children and the elderly as she addressed reporters. "Three days of dedicated, substantive debate on the global forefront with all stakeholders present is a moment to cherish and benefit from."
The meeting will bring together 400-500 delegations from states parties, observers, and dignatories to the convention as well as 200-300 civil society representatives. They will be discussing the implementation of a convention that has been ratified by 103 states parties and has been in force since May 2008.
The convention is designed to empower disabled people by articulating their rights and their status as subjects rather than objects of charity and social protection.
"The convention will help build a more inclusive society where everybody wins from the participation of many voices, where equal opportunity for all produces benefits for all," said Larsson.
For its fourth session, the conference will have the theme, " Enabling Development, Realizing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." The officials all emphasized the importance of people with disabilities to overall international development.
"Returning to the theme of the conference, I would just like to add that enabling development encompasses an objective of the disability community to look at disability and development," said Marten Grunditz, permanent representative of Sweden to the UN.
"There is a feeling in the community that we will not be a the position to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if there is not commensurate progress among the 1 billion people having one or other form of disability," Grunditz said.
The MDGs are a set of eight international development targets that UN member states have pledged to achieve by the year 2015.
Professor Clive McCallum, chair of UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities emphasized the importance of bringing disabled people sufficient jobs.
"Its only through employment that we can play full roles as citizens in our countries," said McCallum. "It's only through employment that we can use our talents to contribute to the better of society. Its only through employment that we can support ourselves and our families."
He cited a Dec. 2010 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that concluded that in member countries of the OECD, the unemployment rate for disabled people is more than twice as high as the national averages. The situation, he said, is even worse for women, who have a higher unemployment rate than disabled men.
"If you look at the OECD report, far too much is spent upon disability pensions and social welfare benefits," said McCallum. " What we want is money to be spent to get us into employment so that less of us need to be on social security and benefits and in these economic times of downturn when some countries are cutting their social security its even more imperative to have programs to get us out of sheltered workshops, to get us out of our homes, and to get us in full time employment."
McCallum added that the committee looks forward to the three- day conference as an opportunity to communicate with other stakeholders on an important issue.
"We see it as a marvelous way for us to interact with civil society and with states' parties," he said. "We play a small part in administering the convention at the international level, but the real responsibility is on all those states parties that have signed up to implement the convention within their own societies."
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Posted by jicafriends at September 9, 2011 01:20 PM