[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: UN on Empowering the Disabled

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>RIGHTS: Ending Poverty Means Empowering the Disabled
>
>By Isaac Baker
>
>February 3, 2005, Inter Press Service
>
>http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27317
>
>UNITED NATIONS, Feb 3 (IPS) - U.N. member states and disabled
>advocacy groups finalised a draft agreement Thursday to
>defend basic rights like independent living, employment and
>equality, paving the way for the first-ever international
>treaty guaranteeing the rights of the disabled.
>
>The draft text will now be up for review by the General
>Assembly, and would be formalised at a future U.N.
>convention, for which no official date has been set.
>
>In what is considered a major breakthrough, it addresses
>political and socioeconomic development as well as simply
>greater access to the physical environment.
>
>'What we do agree upon on in this committee will have direct
>consequences for those who have to face their life and
>personal development with disability,' said the chairman of
>the drafting committee, Luis Gallegos Chiriboga.
>
>'We must attend to the needs of a segment of the world
>population which, in spite of disability, gives us a lesson
>for living and for overcoming adversities.'
>
>The U.N. estimates that 600 million people worldwide -- about
>one-tenth of the world's population -- currently live with
>some form of disability, ranging from blindness and deafness,
>to immobility and various mental disabilities.
>
>While disabled persons represent around 10 percent of the
>global populace, their rights have been largely disregarded
>in the international arena, disability advocacy organisations
>and other NGOs say.
>
>'Disability is a natural part of human diversity, and the
>problems that people with disabilities face in fully enjoying
>their human rights stem from the failure of society to be
>inclusive of people with disabilities,' Venus Ilagan, the
>chairperson of Disabled Peoples' International, told IPS
>Thursday.
>
>'Societal barriers -- physical, informational, legal,
>attitudinal and others -- are the things that need to be
>'treated,' not people with disabilities.'
>
>'It is our hope that the new Convention will provide guidance
>to U.N. member states in how to address these societal
>barriers, so that people with disabilities can fully enjoy
>their human rights,' Ilagan said.
>
>All 191 U.N. member states were listed as participants at the
>committee's negotiations, and over 100 have expressed early
>support of a treaty.
>
>However, others have already voiced opposition to a binding
>document. U.S. President George W. Bush, for example, argues
>that states should act individually to promote disabled
>rights.
>
>To ensure that disabled persons were heard at the
>negotiations, the U.N. committee invited hundreds of speakers
>and representatives from disability advocacy groups over the
>course of the two-week session.
>
>One of the major issues discussed was the prevalence of
>poverty among the disabled.
>
>The World Bank reports that one in five of the of the world's
>450 million poor are disabled, meaning that disabled persons
>are twice as likely to be living in poverty. The disabled
>poor also tend to be at the bottom end of the poverty level,
>making basic necessities nearly unattainable.
>
>Sue Stubbs, the coordinator of the International Disability
>and Development Consortium (IDDC), said addressing the
>convention's focus on the issue of poverty among the disabled
>was vital.
>
>'This convention can help ensure that disabled children,
>women and men are included in all the international efforts
>to reduce poverty and provide a basic standard of living for
>all human beings,' Stubbs said.
>
>However, the U.N. has been criticised by disabled rights
>groups for not including disabled persons enough in
>directives aimed at reducing poverty.
>
>Groups like Handicap International and the IDDC say the
>U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of
>objectives that include halving poverty, do not adequately
>consider disabled persons. And since the disabled represent
>around one in five of those in poverty, this could undermine
>the U.N.'s ability to achieve the goals, they say.
>
>'Six out of eight MDGs have fundamental links to disability
>and cannot be achieved without taking disability issues into
>account,' IDDC's report to the U.N. committee said.
>
>Alexander Wood, executive director of the New York-based
>Disability Network, said many disabled people are unable to
>find decent jobs.
>
>'It's a whole interlocking thing where in order to have
>access to the workplace you need transportation, you need an
>education system that.works on building the skills that
>people with disabilities so that they can read and write and
>compete on a level playing field with other applicants on the
>job market,' Wood said.
>
>Wood said 70 percent of working-age disabled persons are
>unemployed in the United States -- one of the world's richest
>countries - due to a lack of services relating to education,
>job training, housing and other factors.
>
>The U.N. committee has included many issues concerning the
>right to work in the draft treaty.
>
>At the U.N. conferences, disability rights groups also spoke
>of the need for inclusion into their societies, which they
>say are largely inaccessible to disabled persons.
>
>Disabled advocates expressed concern that factors like
>prejudice and discrimination, insufficient health care
>services and housing, transportation and mobility restraints,
>and other barriers lead to inequality and disenfranchisement
>of the disabled.
>
>Matthew Sapolin, the executive director of the New York City
>Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, also said
>disabilities are not the problem, societal restraints on the
>disabled are.
>
>'The problem is not my disability,' Sapolin, who is blind,
>said Tuesday at a U.N. panel discussion on disabled rights.
>'The problem is the environment in which we live, and how can
>we tackle and break down those obstacles.' (END/2005)
>
>
>_______________________________________________________
>
>portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news,
>discussion and debate service of the Committees of
>Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to
>provide varied material of interest to people on the
>left.
>
>For answers to frequently asked questions:
><http://www.portside.org/faq>
>
>To subscribe, unsubscribe or change settings:
><http://lists.portside.org/mailman/listinfo/portside>
>
>To submit material, paste into an email and send to:
><moderator at portside.org> (postings are moderated)
>
>For assistance with your account:
><support at portside.org>
>
>To search the portside archive:
><http://people-link5.inch.com/pipermail/portside/>


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand