Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

Box 7.3 Monitoring human rights violations andabuse against persons with disabilitiesIn November 2000, the Special Rapporteurfor Disability convened an expert seminarin Stockholm, in order to draft guidelinesfor identifying and reporting human rightsviolations against persons with disabilities. i Theseminar established five distinct areas that mustbe monitored, as follows:• National laws: these can appear to protecthuman rights but may come to be used inways that create inequity and violate thehuman rights of persons with disabilities.• Legal cases: these are just as important asthe written laws of a country: regardless ofwhat a law says, in reality what matters ishow a law is interpreted and enforced.• Government programmes, services andpractices: these normally have the greatestimpact on the daily lives of persons withdisabilities and their families but it isoften difficult to thoroughly review theeffect of these programmes. The seminarrecommended that special reportingmanuals be made available to disabilityrights groups.• Media representation of persons withdisabilities: media events must be monitoredto ensure they do not promote ideas andimages that infringe upon the rights ofpersons with disabilities.• Individual cases of abuse: documenting andreporting these cases raises awareness andsupport and makes it difficult for neglect andhuman rights violations to go unnoticed andunaddressed.Source:i’Measuring Progress from Rights on Paper to Rightsin Reality’, from the report on the Almasa seminar,November 2000, , accessed 17 August 2007.Support is most effective when it is directed atencouraging new, inclusive approaches foundedupon the family, the community and the rights ofthe child, including the right to express her or hisviews and influence decisions. It is important toacknowledge that support may sometimes be givento projects which, however well-intentioned, perpetuateexclusion. These include segregated specialschools, sheltered workshops, projects to renovateand improve institutions, or others that distancepersons with disabilities from their families and thelocal community.Promoting inclusion also makes economic sense.It does away with the need for expensive parallelsystems of service provision. Facilitating access tothe world of work – including for children who, inconformity with relevant international standards,are old enough to have access to employment –reduces the high cost to States in terms of benefitpayments and the loss of potential productivity. Italso maximizes the contribution that persons withdisabilities make once they are have a job in theform of tax and social insurance payments, and theircontribution to the national economy by developingthe consumer potential of persons with disabilities.Although there are few studies addressing this issue,the potential economic gains in this regard aresubstantial. A study presented to the World Bank,for example, conservatively estimated that for 36countries of the Americas region, the productivityloss in 1993 due to exclusion of persons with disabilitiesfrom the labour market amounted to approximatelyUS$625 billion. 124MonitoringIrrespective of the degree of commitment of nationalgovernments to ensuring the rights of children withdisabilities, it is important that national developmentsare promoted and monitored through nationalindependent human rights institutions such as commissionersor a children’s ombudsperson. Proceduresmust also be in place to assess human rightsviolations. These institutions may be effectively supportedby the involvement of bodies such as nationaldisability coordinating committees or organizationsof persons with disabilities. The situation of childrenwith disabilities is now being monitored country bycountry through a variety of mechanisms. Statesparties report on progress regarding the rights ofchildren with disabilities in reporting to the Committeeon the Rights of the Child, and these issues areaddressed in the comments made by the Committeeon those reports. 125 The CRC reporting process providesa rich basis for understanding the developmentof the rights of children with disabilities. 126As discussed above, mechanisms are being establishedfor monitoring the implementation of the newCRPD through the Committee on the Rights of Personswith Disabilities. Monitoring is also carried outand supported by a wide range of NGOs, includinginternational disability NGOs such as Mental DisabilityRight International and Inclusion International.For its part, the Save the Children Alliance hasdeveloped a global database on good practices topromote the rights of children with disabilities andmonitor violations of these rights. 127 Key areas formonitoring are identified in box 7.3.International and regional partnershipsIf countries and agencies are to achieve the goalsset out in international commitments, includingEducation for All, the Millennium DevelopmentGoals and ’A World Fit for Children’, children withdisabilities must be fully and visibly included in theirpolicies and programmes.35 Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities Innocenti Digest No. 13