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Social Forum
5 October 2016; 17:25-18:00
Carl Allen Reaich
Closure of the Social Forum
Excellencies,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured to close the 2016 Human Rights Council’s Social Forum that reflected on the rights of persons with disabilities in the 10th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the way forward towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda under this treaty.
We enjoyed three days of fruitful discussionswith substantive inputs from all of you. We identified key aspects and actions to advance on the realization of the human rights of persons with disabilities, as well as the challenges lying ahead. The conversations held have put together different perspectives and identified many outcomes that I will try to summarise on these closing remarks.
From the State perspective, there is a strong call for universal ratification of the CRPDand its optional protocol to ensure protection of rights world-wide. At the national level, participants to the forum identified the urgent need of legal harmonization, adopting the human rights-based approach to disability for all policy design, and ensuring participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations in policy-making processes.It was raised that focal points that coordinate efforts on implementation and support decentralisation are very important on this regard. Participants also highlighted that States must comply with immediate obligations and ensure appropriate budget allocations for the fulfilment of progressive realisation obligations. Finally, as States, we need to support monitoring mechanisms to play their key role, facilitating access to disaggregated data and developing human rights indicators.
International cooperation also plays a key role in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities. Efforts must be made to increase the availability of funds and resources. Increasing disability-specific funds, mainstreaming disability throughoutinternational cooperation, and ensuring participation of persons with disabilities in international cooperation is imperative. Implementing disability markers to track inclusion of persons with disabilities in mainstream funding programmes was identified as being a useful tool in this sense.
Under their respective mandates, international organisations can contribute to promoting the rights of persons with disabilities. Undoubtedly, their increased engagement could lead to better implementation of the human rights and development frameworks at all levels. We welcome OHCHR’s efforts with support of the European Union to develop guidelines for SDG-CRPD implementation. Participants highlighted the need for UN agencies to strengthen their cooperation with United Nation Country Teams and their capacity buildingactivities on the rights of persons with disabilities.
National Human Rights Institutions are pivotal to strengthen monitoring of CRPD and they mustbecompliant with the Paris Principles and CRPD Committee standards, in particular in terms of independence.NHRIs must mainstream disability-related issues in all areas of their work, while keeping focal points to support that mainstreaming and attend to disability-specific issues.Their engagement with the judiciary is alsokey to ensure access to justice and the provision of effective remedies. NHRI’s are in a great position to provide technical support and capacity building to organisations of persons with disabilities and facilitate their dialogue with governments. At the international level, NHRIs need to increase their involvement with the universal and regional human rights systems.
On another perspective, the creation of a disability network on media, which includesprivate and public media and persons with disabilities, as communicators and target audiences could greatly contribute to the realisation of Article 8 of the CRPD. Combatting stereotypes, promoting appropriate language and portrayingpersons with disabilities as right-holders,ensuring access to information through accessible media platforms and increasing visibility and mainstreaming, are the main goals that such an initiative should pursue.
Participants also highlighted the pressing need to include the private sector inSDG-CRPD implementation. Different instances, such as global compacts,cancontribute to develop guidelines, exchange on good practices and support promoting different actions, such as adopting the human rights based approach to disability, mainstreaming persons with disabilities as consumers, implementing universal design, and expanding production and reduce costs of disability-specific products. Public procurement can play a key role in connection to this sector.
Academia is keyin reflecting on practices and provide input to take them further towards compliance with the CRPD, beginning by adopting a human rights-based approach to research. Further,there is a need for increase research applied to policy making, particularly in areas where knowledge or procedural gaps are identified, such as access to justice, and to increase the number of researchers devoted to this area. Direct participation and involvement of persons with disabilities was highlighted as crucial to ensure quality and inclusive research.
All these elements, and many others, have been referred to during this Social Forum. They mark the way forward and engage us all to further strengthen our efforts towards inclusive societies, SDG-CRPD implementation and full respect and fulfilment of the rights of persons with disabilities.
Dear friends,
Before concluding, I wish to once more express my sincere thanks to my distinguished co-chair, Amb. Lomonaco, moderators and panellists for their excellent presentations; to the contributions received from the participants; to the interpreters, including international sign interpretation; to the Conference Service Personnel who facilitated the smooth conduct of the Forum; to the volunteers, interns and others that took the time to make this Forum a reality; and to the Secretariat of the 2016 Social Forum for its invaluable input and support on all aspects of the organization of this Forum.
I would like to wish you all safe travels back to your countries with the assurance that you have largely contributed to the design of the future agenda for the SDG-CRPD implementation. New Zealand, as Co-Chair of the Social Forum, is committed to continue supporting the agenda on the rights of persons with disabilities in the Human Rights Council and beyond. We have learned a lot from the discussions that took place during the last three days and I will make sure to disseminate the outcomes to my country.
Thank you,