11.04.2016 Week four of the Geneva marathon of Spring 2016

©CBM

In the morning of Monday 11th April we will be adopting the Concluding Observations(recommendations) on the initial report of Portugal, based on the constructive dialogue we had. You can read a summary here. In the afternoon we will do the same process for Thailand, again you can read a summary of the constructive dialogue with Thailand here. All these sessions are closed to the public. Although the Country Rapporteur leads the discussion on the recommendations, all 18 members of the Committee need to agree.

The Committee will discuss its 3rd General Comment on article 6 (women and girls with disabilities) on Tuesday 12th April punctuated with a lunch briefing on ‘Empowering women and girls with disabilities’ including presentations from CBM’s Senior Gender Advisor, Mary Keogh, as well as Luisa Fenu from Handicap International complimenting Belinda Mason’s Silent Tears exhibition of women’s accounts of violence.

In the morning of Wednesday 13th April we will be adopting the Concluding Observations (recommendations) on the initial report of Chile – read a summary of the dialogue here. And in the afternoon, my recommendations for Slovakia will be under the spotlight. It takes an average of three hours for the Committee to discuss the 20 or so ‘concerns’, ‘recommendations’ and ‘follow up’ that form the Concluding Observations. The State party have four years to implement the steps required by the Committee, and will be held accountable by their civil society organisations at a national level; the summary of the Slovakian dialogue can be read here.

Thursday, 14 April will be a full day discussion of our 4th Draft General Comment on article 24 – education . On Friday, 15th April we’ll have a morning briefing by Disability Rights Promotion International DRPI, on the implementation of SDG (sustainable development goal) disability-related indicators, followed by another further full day of discussion of the 4th Draft General Comment.