NGO Comments on the draft text
Draft article 6

Intervention by (Australian) National Association of Community Legal Centres, People with Disability Australia Incorporated, Australian Federation of Disability Organisations

Mr Chairman: Thank you for this opportunity to address the Ad Hoc Committee.

We strongly support the content and intent of draft article 6. However, statistics and data collection are not appropriately characterised as a human right. In our view, they represent operational activities that should be included with other operative provisions at the end of the convention.

Statistics and data collection on the prevalence of disability and enjoyment of human rights by people with disability is essential to effective policy development, planning and evaluation of disability initiatives at both the national and international levels. In this respect, the opening paragraph of this article could be improved in three ways. First, by incorporating direct references to ‘planning’ and ‘evaluation’ as activities supported by effective statistics and data collection. Second, by making it clear that States have a direct obligation to collect, analyse and codify disability-related statistics and other data, rather than to merely ‘encourage’ others to do this. Third, by inserting a requirement that States make disability related statistics and other data publicly available. This will facilitate effective policy development, planning and evaluation by the private sector.

Disability statistics and other data play an important role in policy development, planning, and evaluation of international aid programs, standards development, and trade liberalisation measures etc. The development of consistent statistical and data collection methodologies between countries is therefore a key priority for international cooperation. We therefore recommend the inclusion of an additional paragraph promoting the development, through international cooperation, of consistent statistical and data collection methodologies between States.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee.

Center for International Rehabilitation Intervention

Thank you, Mr. President.

On behalf of the Center for International Rehabilitation, I thank you for your effort as president of this committee, and I thank the Bureau and the members of this committee for favoring NGO participation in the debate.

We consider it important to move Article 6 to the end of the text, to include it under the Operative Provisions section. We value the European Union’s proposal regarding this article, but would like to see it expanded under a distinct section for Implementation.

We find it relevant to highlight that the collection of information should be used not only in the planning and implementation of policies, as proposed by the European Union, but also in the monitoring of such policies. Furthermore, it is imperative that such information be made accessible.

We concur with the European Union’s proposal regarding provisions to safeguard the confidentiality and respect the privacy of persons with disability. This is an extremely sensitive topic that the convention must expressly address. As proposed by the European Union, internationally established norms must also be applied to data collection, in order to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disability.

We emphasize that it is always necessary to include disability organizations in the design and process of gathering and interpreting information on persons with disability. This process must not be segregated, however, and should be integrated into the general statistics of the country. The intention should be to evaluate the situation and needs of persons with disability, which, more so than simply obtaining statistics, is our true interest.

Furthermore, and given that a number of delegations deem it important to gather information in discrete categories, such as gender, age, etc., we call for the inclusion of indigenous populations as its own category.

Finally, we stress the need for greater international cooperation in order to improve and standardize the collection of information.

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