International Developments Newsletter
15 November 2002
(EDITORIAL NOTE: After an absence of some time, CCD is re-launching its CCD
International Developments newsletter. CCD will be disseminating this
publication via email to individuals and organizations. Please share this
publication with your colleagues who are interested in international issues.
CCD’s international work is co-ordinated by its International Development
Committee. This Committee consists of: Steve Estey, Chairperson; Mary Ennis,
Irene Feika, Angie Allard, Jason Mitschele, David Shannon. The International
Development Committee reports to the CCD National Council.)
UPDATE ON DISABLED PEOPLES' INTERNATIONAL (DPI) 6TH WORLD ASSEMBLY
Steve Estey, Chairperson of CCD's International Development Committee, and Mary
Ennis, CCD Vice Chairperson and a member of CCD's International Development
Committee, participated in DPI's World Assembly, held in Sapporo, Japan in
October. In July 2002, the DPI North American Caribbean Region elected Steve
Estey as one of five regional representatives to the DPI World Council. CCD is
the Canadian member of DPI, which had its beginnings in Winnipeg in 1980 and
then went on to be formally founded in Singapore in 1981. Following the
Assembly, DPI held a Council meeting where Venus Illagan of the Phillipines was
elected as DPI’s new Chairperson. Also on the DPI's Executive Committee are:
Deputy Chairperson for Human Rights: Teofilo Alarcon (Dominican Republic -Latin
America) Deputy Chairperson for Development and Under Represented Groups:
Khalfan H. Khalfan (Tanzania -Africa) Secretary: Frank Mulcahy (Ireland
-Europe) Treasurer: Shoji Nakanishi (Japan -Asia Pacific) Information Officer:
Mary Mitchell (Jamaica-North America & the Caribbean).
DPI invited Steve to be a presenter at four workshops: one on the proposed UN
Convention on the rights of people with disabilities (What Do We Want In A
Convention) a bioethics session (Who Is Making the Decisions) a session on human
rights (Monitoring Human Rights), and the commonwealth. (DPI Commonwealth
Committee).
The Assembly devoted an entire stream of the conference to the proposed UN
Convention and Mary spent much of her time monitoring discussions regarding the
convention, following up on the work that she did in August at the United
Nations during the AD HOC Committee meetings on the Convention. The Canadian
Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) the Hon. David Kilgour, MP, addressed the UN
Convention in his speech to the World Assembly stating, "The universal need for
self-reliance among people with disability will soon hopefully be enshrined in a
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Peoples. It is the product
of your efforts and energy. Canada strongly supports the principles of the
proposed convention. They are consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms and with our other human rights legislation. Our official position
will be made more clear after we've conducted consultations with provincial
governments, the disabled community, and other concerned stakeholders. In the
meantime, we think it important to make the best use of existing international
instruments, such as the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and
the one on Civil and Political Rights. (For the complete text of the Secretary
of State’s speech go to:
http://www.david-kilgour.com/ssap/living%20independantly.htm) Discussions at
meetings of the International Disability Alliance (IDA), an informal alliance
of: Disabled Peoples' International, World Federation of the Deaf, World Blind
Union, Rehabilitation International and Inclusion International, and World
Network of the Users of Psychiatry helped put the proposed Convention on the
international political agenda, reported a conference bulletin.
Another conference stream focused on bioethics and DPI invited Gregor Wolbring,
a member of CCD's Human Rights Committee, to present in 3 of the conference's 4
bioethics workshops. "The Assembly's bioethics workshops represent some of the
best work done on this topic by people with disabilities," states Gregor
Wolbring.
The Canadian Association of Independent Living Centers (CAILC) sent a
delegation, consisting of Executive Director Tracy Walters, Dan Maclellan, and
Paul-Claude Berube, to participate in the Assembly's Independent Living stream,
as well as undertake other activities.
Development was another important workshop stream at the Assembly. Canadian
Yutta Fricke, a former DPI staff person, shared information on how to write a
project proposal for development agencies and facilitated a meeting for partners
of Abilis, a Finnish development and disability foundation. Olga Krassoukova,
International Director of the Canadian Center on Disability Studies, also
participated in the development stream, presenting at the workshop titled
"Disability and Development: Power of Knowledge" to provide an overview of the
CCDS's research study undertaken for the World Bank. As a result of the
research project, the World Bank has launched an "e-discussion" entitled
"Poverty Eradication and Disability: The Bank's Challenge, running from 4
November - 29 November 2002. To join the discussion go to
http://vx.worldbank.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?join=disability. On 3 December 2002,
International Disability Day, the World Bank is staging a high-profile
conference on Disability and Development. The purpose of the e-discussion group
is to pique interest in the event and the topic.
"People", the World Assembly's daily bulletin, provided the following insights
from the development workshops. Mkanga from Tanzania said, “Poverty produces
disabled people and vice versa: there is a vicious circle between poverty and
the creation of disabled people. In developing countries people generally enjoy
insufficient public services in areas such as welfare, medical treatment,
education and employment. People with disabilities are excluded from being
productive and society’s decision-making process, resulting in earning their
living as beggars. In short they are treated as inferior human beings.
Education is a very important means for reducing the causes of poverty, making
it the means for sustainable development.”
Apiagyei from Ghana said, “'In Ghana poverty can be seen anywhere. The lack of
any effective policy, especially the absence of law against the discrimination
of disabled people, has accelerated the situation inspired by poverty they have
suffered. We, as an NGO addressing this issue, have watched to see if they
could get any affirmative benefit from the "Strategy for Reducing Poverty" which
was declared in 1983.”
DPI produced several information vehicles to summarize the business of the World
Assembly: "People", the DPI World Assembly Daily Bulletin published by the
Sapporo Organizing Committee for the 6th DPI World Assembly, the Sapporo
Platform and the Sapporo Declaration and the resolutions passed by the
Assembly. DPI's emphasis on information sharing is confirmed in the Sapporo
Platform that states, "As participants of this assembly, we are the fortunate
few who have come here to listen to each other, to discuss our views and
opinions and to reaffirm our commitment to our work. We must therefore make it
our duty and our responsibility to communicate to our grassroots comrades what
has taken place here. While we feel empowered by this great assembly of 3000
people we must now empower others who could not attend."
The Sapporo Platform made the following recommendation with regard to
International Development: "International Development organizations must
evaluate their policies, programs and services to ensure the inclusion of
disabled people. We must encourage our governments who financially support
these agencies to include specific policies that ensure the full participation
of disabled people by the provision of accessible and appropriate service
delivery."
Delegates at the World Assembly spoke out strongly in favor of a specific UN
Convention addressing the rights of persons with disabilities. On the topic of
Human Rights the Sapporo Platform stated, "As a human rights organization, we
must seek support for a convention that will protect and respect our human
rights. We must educate ourselves, civil society as well as our government
representatives at all levels. We must learn from the strategies and successes
of others such as landmine survivors and women. Our rights are violated on a
daily basis; we must continue to gather the evidence."
On the topic of the proposed UN Convention the Sapporo Declaration stated, "We
demand a specific international human rights convention that is reflective of
the full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and
that includes a strong convention-monitoring mechanism informed by the unique
perspective of people with disabilities to ensure the credibility, legitimacy
and efficacy of the convention; Disabled people demand a voice of our own in the
development of this instrument. We must be consulted at all levels on all
matters that concern us. We request the UN Secretary-General to continue to
provide facilities necessary for the development of an International Human
Rights Convention for disabled people and to reallocate resources to support the
work of the United Nations Program on Disabilities; We urge all UN member states
to support the formulation and adoption of this convention and to establish a
Voluntary Fund to support the participation of disabled people, in particular
from developing countries; We encourage all disabled people and their
organizations to educate the public and their political representation on the
need and benefits of a convention."
In the coming months, CCD's International Development Committee will be devoting
much of its time to monitoring developments relating to the Convention.
Other Canadians in attendance at the World Assembly included: Aldred Neufeld,
Marie Trudeau, Moira Jones DPI Executive Director, Jorge Aguela, DPI Membership
Officer, Anne Le, DPI Project Officer.
For information about the work of CCD or to raise issues that you think CCD
should bring to the attention of DPI please correspond with Steve Estey,
Chairperson of CCD's International Committee and a representative on the DPI
World Council. Email can be sent to CCD at mailto:[log in to unmask] and to Steve
at mailto:[log in to unmask] For more information about the work of DPI
contact them at mailto:[log in to unmask]
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