Aug 23 Joint Plenary 1 - Human Rights - Topic 3 Lars Bosselmann

Aug 23 Joint Plenary 1 - Human Rights - Topic 3 Lars Bosselmann

Tuesday, August 23

9:00 – 10:30 WBU-ICEVI Joint Plenary Session

Theme: Human rights for persons who are blind or partially sighted

Topic 3: How human rights are achieved through the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda

Speaker: Lars Bosselmann, Director, Department for International Advocacy and Alliance, CBM

Key points for presentation:

Introduction: What is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? A universal agenda valid for 15 years, adopted one year ago by all countries world-wide.
It is the successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals with major differences to those: It is applicable to all countries, not just to poorer countries;
It is following an integrated approach bringing together all streams of sustainability: Economic, environmental and Social, its promoting multi-stakeholder approaches and, of course, it talks much more inclusion than the MDGs!

What's in the 2030 agenda about inclusion and rights? Basically, the whole agenda can be seen as a fully inclusive document, the most prominent expression of that is the "leave no one behind" motto which emerged in the course of the drafting process of the 2030 Agenda. But even if we go deeper into the text, we'll see that inclusion language is everywhere; Phrases like "for all", focusing on the most marginalized groups of the population/vulnerable groups etc. are clearly pointing in that direction. Of course, there are 11 explicit references to persons with disabilities which is a major shift from the MDGs and a major advocacy tool for us!

How to use this Agenda? The success of the implementation will largely depend on how we are pushing for realizing the promises made by the Agenda! The implementation is mainly taking place on a voluntary basis/, the key level to influence is the national level! So all countries are supposed to develop plans or strategies on how to make the 2030 Agenda real in their national context. This work includes setting indicators which is good to look at for us as well.

So this opens opportunities for WBU and its national members to lobby governments to follow-up on their promises. Work in that direction can start with the simple question to the government "Is there such a plan being developed in our country?" And then the obvious follow-up question about the inclusion of the disability movement in drafting, implementing, reporting the national plan. Countries volunteer to report back on their progress at the global level via a mechanism called the High-Level Political Forum.

11:00 – 12:30 WBU-ICEVI Concurrent Sessions

WBU-ICEVI Concurrent Session 6: UN Post-2015 SustainableDevelopment Goals

Chair: Charles Mossop, Regional President, WBU NA-C

Topic 1:How the CRPD links with implementation of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals

Speaker: Vladimir Cuk, Executive Director, IDA

Topic 2: How we mobilise implementation of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals

Speaker: Andrew Griffiths,Head of Advocacy, Sightsavers

Topic 3: The Sustainable Development Goals (Post-2015) and what they mean for blind and partially sighted people

Speaker: Lars Bosselmann, Director, Department for International Advocacy and Alliance, CBM

Introduction: I am not going to repeat too much the points about the SDGs that I already made during the plenary. Here the purpose is more to look at the use of the SDGs and how that use can be meaningful for people who are blind or partially sighted.

  1. There is a common platform for advocacy in all countries in the field of sustainability.
  2. Thanks to the numerous references to persons with disabilities in the 2030 Agenda, we are now part of the agenda. This changes the starting point of the conversation. Instead of saying "we are not in". We can turn quickly towards "How do we make this real for people who are blind or partially sighted".
  3. The SDGs, as did indeed the MDGs, determines how money is spent and in what manner. So the inclusive nature of the SDGs has the potential of getting more funding into inclusive projects.
  4. The SDGs also have the potential to strengthen linkages between many stakeholders and bringing the disability movement closer to the mainstream, since the whole Agenda is about building new partnership.
  5. The common platform that I described in point one also means a joint platform for sharing experiences and learning from each other.
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