24.08.2015 Geneva marathon – week two

After a weekend of warm down exercises, we stretch into Monday 24th August when the CRPD Committee meets organisations of persons with disabilities from Mauritius, Brazil and Qatar providing us with the background information from their countries to help us with our forthcoming questions to their delegations.

After  lunch , we’ll have three hours examining Mauritius, led again by led by Safak Pavey, Committee member from Turkey.  As Rapporteur for two countries in a single session, it’s exhausting – I remember from the double whammy of Germany and the Cook Islands myself.  The pressure is all on to get the recommendations to the UN translation team so Committee members can access the text in their working language before we agree in plenary.  I remain the only Committee member whose first language is English, so dotting i’s and crossing t’s inevitably falls to me…

Tuesday 25th August continues with the exam of Mauritius for three hours, followed by a lunchtime briefing by Disability Rights Promotion International (DPRI) on the post-2015 development agenda.  In the afternoon Theresia Degener Committee member from Germany will lead the dialogue with Brazil.

On Wednesday 26th August, the Brazilian delegation have another three hours of questions and answers, followed by a lunchtime briefing by the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) on the situation of the European Union in relation to articles 11 and 32 (humanitarian aid and international cooperation respectively) – we’ll hear from CBM’s very own Alba Gonzalez which I look forward to. Read Alba’s blog here.  The afternoon session is the first part of Qatar’s examination, led by Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, Committee member from Jordan.

The Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the European Union will brief the Committee on the morning of Thursday 27th August, followed by the second part of Qatar’s constructive dialogue.  At lunchtime, Catherine Naughton, in her new position as Director of the European Disability Forum, along with her colleagues, will provide the Committee with valuable information ahead of the EU dialogue in the afternoon.  The EU is the first regional body to be examined by a human rights treaty body, so it is very exciting.  The Rapporteurs for the dialogue are non-EU citizens, Damjan Tatic from Serbia and Montian Buntan from Thailand.

On Friday 28th August, the Committee will be briefed by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities on the role of support services in the implementation of the Convention for an hour before the dialogue with the EU continues for three hours.  For lunchtime, Inclusion International will host a side event on inclusive education.  The Committee is developing a general comment – specific guidance for implementation – on article 24 (education).  Then we wrap up the week by adopting the recommendations (known as concluding observations) for Kenya in plenary….it’s the halfway point in the marathon.

Thanks to the International Disability Alliance (IDA), you can watch all the examinations live at: www.treatybodywebcast.org

I will be tweeting from @Diane_CBM with precise timings to tune in.  You can also see the work via twitter using #CRPD14

You can also read summaries of the examinations on the UN media website in Geneva.