Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

Box 4.2 Work of the UN Special Rapporteuron DisabilityThe United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disabilityreports yearly to the Commission for SocialDevelopment. The reports present findings onthe promotion and monitoring of the implementationof the Standard Rules on the Equalizationof Opportunities for Persons with Disabilitiesand contain recommendations, as requested bythe Commission, on their further development.In carrying out the functions of the position, theSpecial Rapporteur establishes a direct dialoguewith Member States and local non-governmentalorganizations and experts, seeking their viewsand comments on any information intended tobe included in the reports. iIn 1994, Bengt Lindqvist was designated by theUnited Nations Secretary-General as the firstSpecial Rapporteur on Disability. In 1998 and2000, he addressed the UN Commission on HumanRights concerning disability as a humanrights issue. The Commission responded byadopting two important resolutions − 1998/31and 2000/51 − in which disability is recognized asa human rights concern for the entire UN system.Bengt Lindqvist retired from the position of SpecialRapporteur at the end of 2002 after servingthree mandates. He was succeeded by SheikhaHessa Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani, who workedclosely with the UN Secretary-General and officialsof the Arab League to facilitate the adoptionand declaration of the Arab Decade for Personswith Disabilities (2004−2013) at the summit meetingof the Arab League in May 2004. Ms. SheikhaHessa has also continuously stressed the needfor accurate statistical data and information ondisability, and this led to the worldwide disseminationof a survey on government action on theimplementation of the Standard Rules.Source:iUnited Nations Enable website,.The study concluded that although some progresshad been made in recognizing the rights of personswith disabilities, “there are more good intentionsworld-wide that are not necessarily backed by strongpolitical will” (p. 12). It was found, for example, that30 countries have reported taking no measures toenable children with disabilities to receive educationin integrated settings. In 37 countries education isnot available to low income persons with disabilitiesor to women with disabilities. At the same time, 84countries reported relevant changes to the training ofteachers, and increasing numbers are adopting policiesand passing legislation to promote the access ofchildren with disabilities to education.Convention on the Rights of Personswith DisabilitiesWhen proposals for a new disability convention werefirst raised, it was suggested by some that there wasno need for such a convention because the rights ofpersons with disabilities were automatically includedin all other conventions, whether or not these includeddisability-specific references. At the same time,organizations of persons with disabilities pressed thecase for a disability-specific convention, noting examplesof their needs being overlooked in the implementationand monitoring of conventions and otherinternational initiatives.In November 2001, the General Assembly of theUnited Nations adopted a resolution to establish anad hoc committee to consider proposals for a Conventionon the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.The proposed convention aimed to give status, authorityand visibility to disability as a human rightsissue in a way that would have been impossible toachieve by any other means. 23At its concluding session in August 2006, the committeeadopted the draft of the proposed convention,which was subsequently adopted by the UN GeneralAssembly on 13 December 2006, and became openfor signature by Member States from 30 March 2007.States, as well as regional integration organizations,become parties to the Convention and to its OptionalProtocol either by signing and ratifying the instrumentsor by acceding to them. Signature conveysthe intention to take steps towards ratification at theinternational level, in the prospect of compliance withthe respective provisions. More than 80 MemberStates and many NGOs took part in the signing ceremonyand the subsequent dialogue on implementation.As of 15 August 2007, 101 countries had signedthe Convention, and 4 countries – Croatia, Hungary,Jamaica and Panama – had ratified it. For entry intoforce, it is necessary that the Convention receive 20ratifications.Children themselves, with support of child advocates,played an important role in the drafting processas well as in other aspects of the development ofthe Convention.The Convention is a human rights instrument with anexplicit social development dimension. It adopts abroad categorization of persons with disabilities andreaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilitiesmust enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.It clarifies and describes how all categoriesof rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifiesareas where adaptations have to be made forpersons with disabilities to effectively exercise theirrights and areas where the protection of their rightsmust be reinforced.Innocenti Digest No. 13Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities10