NEWS: Philippine Initiative Promotes CRPD Ratification
A disability organization, Katipunan ng Maykapansanan sa Pilipinas, Inc.(KAMPI), launched a new initiative in late January that promotes ratifying and implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the Philippines. The initiative has been dubbed “Ang Maykapansanan: Karapatan at Kinabukasan” (Our Rights, Our Future).
Once the CRPD enters full legal force, it will become the first legally-binding, international treaty to protect the human rights of disabled people. Other international human rights instruments either do not address disabled people, or are not legally binding, or both.
(Side note: I was reminded recently that to some people, “convention” means “meeting.” But not in this context! Here, a “convention” is an agreement! So basically, the CRPD is a legally binding agreement among the ratifying countries to pass and implement laws that protect a wide range of human rights for people with disabilities. Ratifying countries also agree to abolish laws that violate the rights of disabled people. Signing a treaty is not the same as ratifying it: signing a treaty is not legally binding, but is a first step toward ratification.)
KAMPI is a member of Disabled People International (DPI), a global federation of national organizations of people with disabilities in 142 countries and territories. DPI, a cross-disability organization, has been heavily involved in promoting the CRPD. Among other things, DPI has created a ratification toolkit and also an implementation toolkit, both targeted at grassroots disability advocates who want to persuade their governments to sign, ratify, and implement the CRPD.
Read more about the KAMPI initiative in the Philippines at
http://v1.dpi.org/lang-en/resources/details?page=901
Also learn more about the CRPD and global efforts to ratify it at www.RatifyNow.org.
We Can Do learned about the KAMPI initiative through the DPI email newsletter.
This article is cross-posted, with minor modifications, at both We Can Do and RatifyNow.org with permission of author.
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