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United Nations
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Contents
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Persons with disabilities must be full participants of the public bodies and procedures by which both general and disability specific laws and policies are created. They should be fully represented in all institutions of public decision-making, including the executive branch of the government at the political level, the civil service, the legislature, independent statutory bodies and the judiciary. This is essential for ensuring the responsiveness, appropriateness and effectiveness of such laws and policies, as well as promoting their full participation in the life of the community, including all forms of public decision-making, in which they are both decision makers and beneficiaries.
(a) Ombudspersons and similar offices / officials concerned with protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities;
(b) Human rights or equal opportunity commissions or other advisory or regulatory commissions, which may be particularly focused on disability issues, e.g. discrimination against persons with disabilities;
(c) Public inquiries, which can investigate issues or incidents and publicize proceedings while reporting to government/intergovernmental organizations, that influence legislation frameworks from a global point of view.
Non-governmental voluntary Organizations
These include:
(a) Religious structures: leaders can exert powerful influence to change social attitudes to persons with disabilities and can mobilize sectors of the population to effect the rights of persons with disabilities;
(b) Cultural and tribal processes: eminent persons and traditional leaders who are outside core government structures. Tribal leaders can mobilize members swiftly and effectively to promote the human rights of persons with disabilities;
(c) Educational institutions: universities and secondary schools are arenas where dissemination of information about the human rights of persons with disabilities should be undertaken;
(d) Political processes: political parties should be encouraged to develop disability policies based on a broad human rights frameworks.
These include:
(a) Employers: they can adopt and encourage relevant and effective measures to accommodate and utilize the talents of persons with disabilities by using international norms and standards relating to employment of persons with disabilities, in consultation with experts, organizations and research institutes;
(b) Other professional organizations: architects and the medical profession in particular are in key positions to make valuable input in developing practices and regulations, and should be targeted for sensitization and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities in their own professional areas;
(c) Media and cultural institutions: the media can make especially important contributions through appropriate presentation of progress and obstacles in implementing disability-sensitive policies, programmes and projects. Public awareness of the contributions of persons with disabilities to the arts and culture and to the social and economic well-being of society as a whole can be effectively promoted through the media. Through the celebration in public forums of the artistic and cultural contributions of persons with disabilities to the societies in which they live, cultural institutions can also change perceptions and may convene exchanges and dialogues focusing on the rich and varied skills, interests and aspirations of person with disabilities in artistic and cultural realms.
These include:
(a) Constitutional protection: the inclusion of a specific reference to discrimination on the ground of disability; guarantees of a right to all measures to enable the full exercise of rights by persons with disabilities; guarantees of full representation in the political process;
(b) Laws guaranteeing full participation in the political process and fair representation in political institutions, the public service, the judicial and administrative institutions, and private sector bodies;
(c) The adoption of anti-discrimination laws, specifically prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disabilities;
(d) Initiatives to further improve linkage between law and policy, especially in the application of international norms and standards in domestic legislation and policy-making through close collaboration among policy makers, jurists and academic institutions / research institutes.
These include:
(a) Litigation either affirmative in pursuit of damages and / or injunctions or defensive in protection of rights of the persons with disabilities;
(b) Obtaining advisory opinions and declaratory judgements;
(c) Refining the content of domestic law through decisions on relevant issues;
(d) Litigation to stimulate action, educate, expose, politicize or sensitize the public to disability issues;
(e) Education of the judiciary in international norms and standards and their applications in the national system;
(f) Individual access to training and recruitment to the bar and bench should be encouraged for persons with disabilities;
(g) The Office of the Advocate General or Peoples' Defender should be encouraged to play a catalytic role in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.
These include the following:
(a) Legislators can be mobilized to support disability issues and are well placed to in turn lobby their colleagues and the executive in support. The role of persons with disabilities as legislators should be emphasized;
(b) The involvement of legislators with disability groups serves as an effective link between such groups and the government should be greatly encouraged in this regard.
States which have not already done so are urged to transform selected legislative, executive, administrative and judicial practices, which empower persons with disabilities to vindicate their rights and ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms are violated have an effective remedy before independent and impartial tribunals or under other national procedures.
The direct application of international law by domestic courts can also play an important role in implementing international human rights norms applicable to persons with disabilities by means of compliance with relevant international standards and citing precedents in other jurisdictions. Due process of law must be followed in matters of disability legislation.
Domestic courts can play a major role in identifying, interpreting and developing international standards and norms, in the field of disability as in other areas. The greater the extent to which international norms on disability are known in the community, the greater the chance that domestic courts will explicitly apply these norms. In addition to serving as forums for the promotion and protection of international human rights of persons with disabilities, national courts can also stimulate national law reform and public discussion through their decisions.
The United Nations, along with other multilateral organizations, should be encouraged to implement such programmes and initiatives as will capitalize on the opportunities that various aspects of globalization present. For example, advances in telecommunications and international travel have facilitated the development of ties and working relationships between disability advocate groups in various parts of the world. This developing trend should be strengthened by international organizations, multilateral aid agencies and non-governmental organizations, including multilateral human rights organizations.
Links between international human rights advocacy groups, including groups focusing on women's rights and national disability rights advocacy groups, need to be developed and fostered. Human rights clinics should be encouraged to take cases involving the human rights of persons with disabilities.
The Division is urged to:
(a) Widely disseminate, with appropriate revisions, the compilation of international norms and standards relating to disability including the report of the Meeting as a reference tool for promoting the use of international norms and standards in domestic legislation and advocacy, and should also: collect disability legislation worldwide and best practice in the application of international norms and standards to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, and develop a disability law library, making use of the electronic resources available;
(b) Organize regional / interregional forums for substantive dialogue on disability law and policy between policy makers and experts (in legal and other fields), non-governmental organizations, academic institutes and appropriate intergovernmental bodies, international institutions and agencies to develop strategies for practical action to promote the rights of persons with disabilities and to examine the desirability of a new international instrument and the form and content of such an instrument. All interested parties should be encouraged to offer input and proposals for such meetings.
United Nations human rights bodies as well as treaty based human rights mechanisms are urged to incorporate further the human rights of persons with disabilities as substantive concerns and part of their agenda. The Committee on the on the Rights of the Child and The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are urged to further their work, focusing on the rights of children and women with disabilities, respectively.
The Meeting took note of the activities of the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development, and encouraged him to further coordinate his efforts with the work of the Commission on Human Rights, its Subcommissions and other relevant bodies.
Other possible strategies to advance the rights of persons with disabilities were examined, including the following:
(a) A working group of the Commission on Human Rights could be established to address specific violations in the area of the rights of persons with disabilities. The working group could include persons with disabilities as its members. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights could consider the possibility of holding meetings of the working group in places around the world in order to ensure accessibility to persons with disabilities from the maximum number of countries.
(b) The rights of persons with disabilities could be considered under all human rights procedures, including thematic procedure, 1235 (violations) and 1503 (confidential).
The promotion and protection of persons with disabilities, including the right to litigate, should be considered by various regional organizations dealing with human rights, disabilities, childhood, women, and other related issues. There should be a focus on the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities. Those regions without human rights protection systems should be encouraged to develop both systems and mechanisms for the consideration of individual complaints, including those involving persons with disabilities.
Regional forums on disability law and policy should be encouraged to develop concrete strategies for promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.
The Meeting took note of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002), which was proclaimed by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to promote the goals of full participation and equality of persons with disabilities in the mainstream of development process. Regional forums such as ESCAP, may play a catalytic role in mainstreaming of the human rights of persons with disabilities through implementation of their policies and programmes.
