Human Rights

SO MUCH ABOUT THE UN CONVENTION BUT VERY LITTLE ACTION!

The widely talked about UN Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

 (CRPD) was adopted by the UN General

Assembly on 13 December 2006, and on

30 March 2007 it opened for signature in

New York. I can remember the amount of

 excitement that most of us in the disability

 movement felt at that time. We were even

more excited when the Convention came

into force on 3 May, 2008 after it was

ratified by more than twenty member states.

Infact, by December 2007, one hundred and seventeen states, including the EU Commission, had signed the Convention and eleven countries had ratified it. This obviously was a clear show of the huge amount of interest around this Convention. There was such a tremendous amount of euphoria about what the new Convention would contribute to the living conditions of people with disabilities in the world. It was not that the new Convention was about new rights but rather this was a new global instrument to ensure that people with disabilities enjoy the same human rights as everyone else. What actually is found to be unique about this Convention is that it is a wonderful instrument that is set to be used to engage countries in the promotion of human rights issues for everyone, including people with disabilities. The Convention has its roots in the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities of 1993.

Although the Standard Rules do not bind UN member states to implement them, they encouraged some countries to come up with wonderful policies for equalizing opportunities for people with disabilities. Prior to the Standard Rules and the 2006 Convention, the UN had crafted a number of international human rights treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, but all these treaties were not as specific, exciting and, perhaps, more relevant as the CRPD; hence the thumbs up and world-wide support that was given to the new human rights instrument when it was adopted by the UN. Four years later, in 2010, a question that needs to be raised by the disability movement is, after so much talk, ululation and excitement about our Convention, what action has been done or is being taken by UN member states to ensure its implementation? What happened to that euphoria about this beautiful and promising human rights instrument? Why has there been little action taken in terms of its signing, ratification and implementation by our countries?

Signing the Convention by UN member states is an indication that they have started the process required by their governments for ratification. In signing, they are also agreeing to retrain from acts that would be contrary to the objectives of the Convention. When a member state ratifies a convention, it shows its intention to comply with the specific provisions and obligations of the instrument; thus, it takes on the responsibility to see to it that its national laws are in agreement with the Convention. If they wish, member states can ratify a convention but indicate their reservations about specific articles with which they disagree. The ratifying government is obliged to report regularly to the administrative body that is created by the convention on how it is implementing the convention. In terms of the CRPD, countries that ratified the new Convention were supposed to provide their first progress reports to the Committee on People with Disabilities (CPD) within two years of ratification and then every four years thereafter (Article 35 of the Convention). However, as SAFOD we are yet to be informed if there is any country that has submitted a progress report to the CPD in Geneva, or if there are any countries that have done so, these may be outside Africa!

In SAFOD member countries, the following countries signed and ratified the Convention: Lesotho (2 December 2008); Malawi (27 December 2009); Namibia (4 December 2007); South Africa (30 November 2007); Zambia (1 February 2010); those that signed but have not ratified are Mozambique and Swaziland; and countries that have not signed are Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

We urge our member countries in Southern Africa that have not signed and/or ratified the Convention to do so by December 2010. We further urge our member organizations and activists to engage their governments to sign up, ratify and domesticate the Convention before the end of the year (2010). There should be a continual education of people with disabilities and the public to understand and appreciate the Convention, and monitor government implementation of this human rights instrument. The idea is to move with speed from CRPD to action; and I am sure it is possible for our governments in Africa in general and Southern Africa in particular to translate the Convention into action!   

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