Chapter 7: Moving Forward - Twin-Track Approach to Disability Rights Monitoring
When the D.R.P.I. project began in 2002, disability rights advocates around the world generally agreed that the twin-track approach to protecting and promoting the rights of people with disabilities should be adopted.21 That is, while continuing to advocate for a disability-specific international human rights convention, efforts should also be made to develop the tools and mechanisms necessary to realize the protection and promotion of disability rights within the existing international human rights system.22
D.R.P.I. has participated in work on both tracks. Through its research in Phase One and the developing and field testing of tools and methods to monitor the human rights situation of people with disabilities in Phase Two, the project has contributed to the effort to promote the recognition and protection of disability rights within the existing international human rights system.
At the same time, D.R.P.I. participated in the efforts to achieve a disability-specific human rights convention. D.R.P.I. representatives attended and contributed to the following important events:
- "Meeting on the Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities", organized by the Government of Mexico with the support of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (D.E.S.A.) and the sub-regional office in Mexico of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (E.L.A.C.) (Mexico City, June, 2002). A D.R.P.I. representative was sponsored by the U.N. to attend the meeting as an Expert.
- Private discussions with Ambassador Luis Gallego Chiriboga (Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee 2002-2005) and Ambassador Don MacKay (Chair of Ad Hoc Committee 2005-2006) (Winnipeg, September, 2004).
- Consultations with Canadian civil society organizations regarding the draft text of the Disability Convention. (Ottawa, March and December, 2005; February, 2006). At these meetings, D.R.P.I. facilitated specific discussions about several draft articles including monitoring.
- Ad Hoc Committee Session 7 (A.H.C.7) and Ad Hoc Committee Session 8 (A.H.C.8) (New York, January and August, 2006). As civil society delegates, D.R.P.I. representatives distributed project flyers and reports, presented during side meetings, networked among N.G.O. and country delegations and offered expertise during informal consultations, regarding the monitoring methods for the convention.
With the U.N. General Assembly's adoption of the Disability Convention and its Optional Protocol on December 13, 2006, a new chapter has begun for disability rights monitoring. The need to pursue a twin-track approach to ensuring the enjoyment of all human rights by people with disabilities remains essential to entrenching those rights and to fighting the battle against the continuing discrimination and abject abandonment of people with disabilities to social and political exclusion.
While there is now a text for a disability-specific convention, the work of the first track is far from complete. In order for the Disability Convention to enter into force, it must be ratified (agreed to) by a country's government before it becomes legally binding on that country. Once it is in force, the Disability Convention will have to be effectively implemented and strictly monitored if it is going to result in actual improvements in the lives of people with disabilities.
The work of the second track also continues. Monitoring efforts need to continue to ensure that international and regional human rights conventions are complying with their obligations to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of all people - including people with disabilities. Holistic disability rights monitoring involving the monitoring of systems, individual experiences and media, provides data to test the effectiveness of both the disability-specific and the mainstream human rights conventions in achieving their stated goals.
People with disabilities and disability organizations have a key role to play in these disability rights monitoring processes. This role is clearly recognized in the text of the Disability Convention. In order to play this role, people with disabilities, disability organizations and others will need to build their capacity to monitor obligations under both the Disability Convention and other international human rights treaties. D.R.P.I.'s monitoring methodology with its emphasis on building the capacity of people with disabilities and disability organizations will provide a means through which the disability community can engage in both the national and international monitoring processes.
Conclusion
The D.R.P.I. project works with people with disabilities and organizations of people with disabilities, to develop the skills and institutional capacity needed to play an integral role in monitoring international and regional human rights instruments, including the Disability Convention. Information collected through holistic monitoring will be used to report to international and regional monitoring bodies; to provide an evidence base for lobbying governments, civil society and the public sector to bring about change in the situation of people with disabilities; and to develop campaigns to address negative myths and stereotypes about disability currently rooted in public opinion.