NEWS: First Committee of Disability Rights Convention Experts Elected
First Committee of Experts on Disability Rights Convention Elected
(New York, United Nations, November 3, 2008): Today, the first Conference of States Parties on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) elected the new Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which will be in charge of monitoring the implementation of the CRPD. The Committee comprises seven men and five women, of which nine are persons with disabilities. The twelve Committee members elected are:
Monsur Ahmed Choudhuri (Bangladesh) (4-year term)
Amna Ali Al Suweidi (Qatar) (4-year term)
György Könczei (Hungary) (2-year term)
Ana Peláez Narváez (Spain) (4-year term)
Cveto Uršič (Slovenia) (2-year term)
Jia Yang (China) (4-year term)
Mohamed Al-Tarawneh (Jordan) (4-year term)
Ron McCallum (Australia) (2-year term)
Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes (Chile) (4-year term)
Germán Xavier Torres Correa (Ecuador) (2-year term)
Lotfi Ben Lallohom (Tunisia) (2-year term)
Edah Wangechi Maina (Kenya) (2-year term)
By drawing lots, six Committee members listed above will serve for a two-year mandate, while the other six members have a four-year mandate.
William Rowland, Chair of the International Disability Alliance CRPD Forum: “We congratulate the members of the Committee for their election and look forward to very close interaction with the Committee. We encourage all Committee members to support Rules of Procedure for the new Committee that will ensure meaningful participation from representative organisations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) in all stages of their work. The Committee should consider the IDA CRPD Forum not only as the network that represents the key stakeholders of the CRPD, but also as a source of expertise.”
The Committee will hold its first one-week meeting in Geneva in February 2009. The Conference of States Parties decided to hold its next meet in 2009, which confirms the substantive nature of the Conference.
For more information on the IDA CRPD Forum, please visit the website:
http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/forum.html
or send an email to: idacrpdforum@yahoo.com.
The IDA CRPD Forum is the network of international and regional organisations of persons with disabilities, which has been established to promote the swift and proper ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol.
This press release was circulated on the AdHoc_IDC mailing list and the IDA CRPD Forum mailing list.
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )RESOURCE: Tips, Strategies for Implementing Disability Rights Convention
The international disability rights treaty, called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), is about to enter into force this May 3, 2008. But a treaty is only a piece of paper–until and unless it is fully implemented. So how can the disability community, international development professionals, governments, and others ensure that the ratifying countries implement the CRPD?
The disability community and its allies can turn to another human rights community that has experience in successfully encouraging the implementation of another international human rights treaty–the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In October 2007, a regional Middle East and North Africa consultation was held on children and the new CRPD in Sana’a, Yemen. On the final day of that consultation, international child rights advocate Gerison Lansdown gave tips and strategies for implementing the United Nations CRPD based on lessons learned from similar efforts in implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The result of her lecture, and the subsequent question and answer session, was a fact sheet, now posted at the web site for the Child Rights Information Network.
The fact sheet outlines the obligations of governments and lists suggestions for how advocates, professionals, and other individuals and their organizations can take action and make change. For example, the public and the government should be taught about people with disabilities (including children) and their entitlement to equal recognition and dignity. Also, alliances should be built across various groups to work together on advocating for disability rights and the CRPD. This alliance could work on an “alternate report” on the human rights situation for disabled people in their country to be submitted to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Read the full fact sheet on-line at:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15312&flag=news
We Can Do readers who read the fact sheet for themselves will notice that the recommendations include suggestions for working closely with the media. One training guide for African journalists might also be helpful for journalists in other regions.
We Can Do has descriptions and links to other CRPD-related resources and toolkits. For still more resources and background information about the CRPD, explore the RatifyNow.org web site and the Enable web site.
We Can Do first learned about this fact sheet on tips and strategies for implementing the CRPD by browsing the AskSource.info database on health,
disability, and development.
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