18.08.2016 Reporting back from week 1 of the CRPD Committee in Geneva

CBM

In the first week of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we had constructive dialogues with the following countries:
For Uruguay I asked questions on:

  • A comprehensive policy for inclusive education, how it was being implemented and how it was linked to the SustainableDevelopment Goals, particularly Goal 4 on equal access to all levels of education?
     
  • How was the policy on inclusion in the workplace being linked with the Sustainable Development Goal 8, which aimed to achieve full and productive work for all and equal pay for equal work? 
     
  • How were persons with disabilities and their representatives involved in the mainstreaming of disability rights in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Uruguay. Read a summary of all the questions and answers here.
     

Ethiopian civil society could not join the public session, but protested outside instead. I stated there was a lack of recognition of multiple and intersectional discrimination, for example in the case of women with disabilities, refugee women with disabilities, and internally displaced women with disabilities.

I asked what progress was being made in eradicating harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, and particularly in combatting harmful disability stereotypes? And what steps were being taken to implement targeted campaigns to address those harmful traditional practices? You can read the summary here:

For the dialogue with the plurinational state of Bolivia, I asked about poverty among persons with disabilities and measures in place to address it, including multiple-dimensions of poverty; 

plans to implement Sustainable Development Goal 17 related to the collection of reliable, high quality, timely and disaggregated data; the monitoring of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and how persons with disabilities were therein involved.  You can read more here:

In addition to the lack of civil society presence for the Ethiopian dialogue, we also lacked any briefing ahead of the examination by organisations of person with disabiiites from the United Arab Emirates.  I wanted to know to what extent was Sustainable Development Goal 11 being implemented, especially in relation to accessible transport and inclusive green and public spaces.

We rounded off the week with an briefing on ageing, and some internal housekeeping.  We are officially one third through the this half marathon….watch this space for more updates.