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U.N. Approves Disability Rights Convention!
June 27, 2003Dispatch from the New York United Nations 2nd Ad Hoc Committee Meeting
Marta Russell, AAPD International Human Rights Advocate, writes:
The final Decision of the 2nd Ad Hoc Committee meeting came down to the wire. It was literally as close as it could get. Past the end of the usual U.N. day, I am thrilled to report we won.
For the last three days the Ad Hoc Committee met in formal sessions, informal sessions (no NGOs), and informal informal sessions (NGOs allowed). Informal informals? Yes, that is for real.
On Tuesday, Committee Chairperson Luis Gallegos concluded that consensus was present amongst delegates to draft a treaty on human rights and disability. The work would move forward.
In the informals, the Committee was deliberating how the next phase of the process should be structured -- specifically the development of a Working Group to prepare a draft text for a treaty on human rights and disability. The nongovernmental disability organizations (NGDOs) were holding out for twelve seats.
Amongst the deal-making and use of bargaining chips that one insider said could be described as horse-trading, Thailand and Chile managed to do a superb job of keeping the vision intact. Reliable sources said that China, Pakistan, and Morocco were proving to be the cows on the track. They weren't in favor of having the NGDOs in the Working Group and were road-blocking the plan arrived at after almost two weeks of work, holding it hostage to technicalities which drew out the process for the entire day.
Meanwhile, tensions were high outside the meeting room and inside the NGO rooms as the NGDOs continued their work -- trying to get accurate information about what would come out of the informal meetings and drafting documents to the Chair.
At the U.N., process is mind-boggling. Even the experienced players did not know what the end result would be. And the ones who told me that we disabled people were not going to see our vision put to a successful conclusion were, in the end, wrong.
The final word was had in the last plenary session that convened at 5:40 p.m. with only twenty minutes left to formalize approval for the draft decision made in the informal because at six o'clock the interpreters go home and the sound system gets shut down. (In the meeting hall there are earphones with a mechanism to select the language in which you wish to hear the proceedings. When that system is turned off all translation is lost.)
Two nations raised objections to the Decision in the precious minutes before six o'clock. It was beginning to look as if time would kill all the grueling work of the past two weeks.
Chairman Gallegos, however, was determined. He got the interpreters to stay for another fifteen minutes. He also used the privilege of the Chair to proceed and persuaded Cuba and Morocco to defer to his ability to review their points at a later time.
The fifteen minutes passed. Then, we were left to conclude the session with no interpreters, no microphones, only the good will of the member states who, at long last, approved the Working Group composition of twenty-seven member states and twelve representatives of NGDOs to be selected among ourselves with transparency and taking into account geographical representation and diversity.
The adoption of the Decision came at 6:23 p.m. as we were left to only the power of our individual voices, the microphones off, the final ruling spoken by the bang of the Chair's hammer.
I felt privileged to have been with those NGDOs and individuals who, for years, have been the moving force behind this process and deserve the credit for victory.
Just last week "treaty fatigue" was a catch phrase being thrown around. As one panelist put it, "isn't it odd that we are starting to hear that now," i.e., just as disabled persons have stepped forward to demand that we be included in a legally binding international human rights treaty?
That dread over another human rights convention coming down the pike has been transformed into a major victory.
All around this was a historical and precedent setting Ad Hoc Committee meeting. We not only won a convention but we got seats at the table of power. This moves us a giant step closer to an international treaty.
There has been blood -- that of all the disabled persons worldwide who cannot be present and who often do not survive due to social circumstances that dictate such an inhumane outcome.
There has been sweat -- from the people working these two weeks with little rest. This includes the 200 individuals, 42 NGOs composed of disabled persons and allies pushing momentum our way as well as the disabled persons serving as delegates to their governments.
Admittedly there were tears from me when Kofi Annan spoke to affirm his support for our treaty that first week.
However the U.S. disability community and its government remain at odds. Why didn't our government consult organizations of disabled people at large before taking the position not to actively support an international convention? How and why was that process omitted?
A message of thanks to Chair Gallegos is in order. Please contact him.
Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador
(Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and
Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect
the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities)
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017
212-832-1075
866-863-2334A message to the White House that the next U.S. delegation must include a disabled person with knowledge in disability and human rights is in order. Please contact the White House's disability point-person, Troy Justesen.
President George W. Bush
C/O Troy Justesen, Disability Liaison
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
202-456-5228
TDD 202-456-6213
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