FINAL REPORT of the
Side Event: “Removing barriers to accessibility – a key component of a rights-based approach to victim assistance and disability: How to effectively advance its implementation?”
Organized by the Delegation of Austria & the Zero Project, on the occasion of the Third Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, at 24th June 2014, 12–2pm, in Side Event Room 2, Girassol Indy Congress Conference Centre, Maputo, Mozambique.
Programme
Moderation and Opening Remarks:Ms. Caroline Wörgötter, Delegation of Austria
Opening Keynote Speech:H.E. Ms. Iolanda Maria Pedro Campos Cintura, Minister for Women and Social Affairs of Mozambique
Speakers:Ms. Ingrid Heindorf, Human Rights Officer, Zero Project, World Future Council (WFC); Mr. Firoz Ali Alizada, Campaign Manager, International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL); Mr. Claude Tardif, Head of Physical Rehabilitation Programme, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Mr. Albino Forquilha, Executive Director, Promoção da Paz, Prevenção do Crime e Reinserção Social (FOMICRES)
Closing Remarks:Mr. Norman Lizano, Delegation of Costa Rica
Summary
With the participation of 60 to 70 delegates to the Maputo Review Conference (including HRH Mired Raad), the side event raised awareness among stakeholders about the importance of adopting and implementing accessibility practices and policies to remove physical, communication, technology, organizational and attitudinal barriers for persons with disabilities, including mine and ERW survivors, to ensure their freedom in movement and access to services and their right to a life in dignity. The event discussed good practices and promoted closer collaboration among stakeholders, in order to implement victim assistance and human rights norms and commitments in a holistic and effective way.
Key points
The moderatorDr. Caroline Wörgötter of the Delegation of Austria briefly introduced the side event by mentioning that a holistic approach to victim assistance is needed, that accessibility is part of victim assistance, which has been enshrined under different humanitarian disarmament treaties such as the Mine Ban Treaty (APLC), the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and Protocol V of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), and that accessibility is also part of the state obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in order to ensure equal access to persons with disabilities, including mine and ERW survivors.
In her opening keynote speech the Mozambican Minister for Women and Social Affairs,H.E. Ms. Iolanda Maria Pedro Campos Cintura, underlined how architectural barriers affected socio-economic development of the country. She gave an overview of the legal and administrative framework of Mozambique to facilitate access to public buildings. She stressed that not only a normative framework but also a supervisory and monitoring mechanisms are of importance. The removal of barriers to the physical environment are just a first step on the way to access to education, employment and information and communication technologies.
The first speaker, Ms. Ingrid Heindorf, Human Rights Officer, Zero Project, World Future Council (WFC), highlighted how the CRPD marks a paradigm shift, a move from an approach where persons with disabilities were considered objects of charity, to subjects of human rights, and how it treats accessibility in a broad and complex manner,as a general principle of article 3 and as a stand-alone provision in article 9. She underlined that it is not just about physical accessibility, but comprises a wide spectrum of areas, such as social/attitudinal, intellectual, communication, institutional, physical as well as economic accessibility. She gave an overview of the activities of the Zero Project and its research, especially about innovative policies and practices from Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Qatar, as well as others. She closed her speech by underlining how accessibility is a pre-condition for independent living.
Thereafter Mr. Firoz Ali Alizada, Campaign Manager of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL),shared his testimony as a landmine survivor and stressed the importance of the removal of barriers. He highlighted the problems people face in rural areas in accessing services and gave a few examples. After recalling the normative frameworks, such as the Maputo Action Plan currently negotiated under the APLC, the CCM and the CCW, he asked where do we start and which priorities we have? He gave an introduction how ICBL works and that they have set up focal points and survivor networks in about 30 countries. He recalled that if one cannot access services, employment, etc., one cannot be part of society and thus becomes to be seen as a burden and is isolated. He highlighted the following good practices: independent living as it is practiced in some countries, universal design and community-based rehabilitation.
Thirdly, Mr. Claude Tardif, who is Head of Physical Rehabilitation Programme of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), elaborated on the concept of independent living. He gave insights into some projects such as one from Afghanistan, where children, who cannot go to school, can have a teacher who comes to their home. He also mentioned how the ICRC itself has a specific leadership role as an institution and how they are implementing now an action plan on disability/accessibility which has as goal to make ICRC’s country offices accessible to people with different types of disabilities. Claude closed by underlining the enormous cost of excluding persons with disabilities from the labour market, which has been also underlined by a study of the ILO.
As last speakerMr. Albino Forquilha,Executive Director of the Promoção da Paz, Prevenção do Crime e Reinserção Social (FOMICRES), gave an overview of the work his organization is carrying out in Mozambique in order to implement the APLC. He highlighted the following particular challenges to Mozambique: the normative instruments such as the APLC and CRPD still have to be disseminated throughout the country and here he underlined the importance of involving not only the public but also the private sector; in terms of advocacy, the principle of equality had to be promoted amongst mine survivors and people with disabilities; there is a lack of data which indicates the number of mine survivors and people with disabilities; there is also lack of monitoring and supervision of the existing instruments at the national level. He proposed to create a national commission to supervise and evaluate the implementation of the various legal instruments relating to disability and accessibility.
Thereafter various questions and comments were received from the floor: The first concerned the role of the private sector, how much the different speakers worked with private actors, for example shop owners, bus operators, etc. A second question regarded the means of compensation as well as on international standards on accessibility in the built environment. A third person commented on the general lack of awareness of the public and private sector about human rights and that the main contra argument is that accessibility is expensive. As well, there is the challenge of expertise and how to concretely go about implementing accessibility in a country. Another commented on the importance of supporting families with children with disabilities in overcoming the stigma and the role of sport for social integration.
In their replies the panelists highlighted how all different actors in society have a role to play, including the private sector, who has to observe the standards defined by the government and conventions. In addition, there are innovative ways to promote action from the private sector, for example by establishing awards, a forum of enterprises which already engage in accessibility (such as the Business Disability Forum) or by entering into public-private partnerships (such as the one Fundacion ONCE entered with IMSERSO which focused exclusively on promoting awareness and projects on accessibility among private and public entities). The panelists underlined that there are different steps, which help a country to increase accessibility. They include, first, the education of stakeholders (architects, engineers, transport operators, web designers, software producers, product designers, etc.) about accessibility, which in many university courses remains facultative; second, that there are standards on accessibility; third, that these standards are legally binding and that their non-use is sanctioned; fourth, that there are audits - ideally when the construction is being planned, during and after construction; fifth, a strong coalition of civil society that raises awareness among the public and which audits existing buildings which constitute the majority of inaccessible places.
In his closing remarks,Mr. Norman Lizano from the Delegation of Costa Rica, highlighted how the removal of architectural barriers is just the first step to ensure accessibility, but also access to education, employment and information technologies. He stressed that there is a direct link between the removal of barriers and the socio-economic development of a country. He recalled the importance of the concept of independent living and of the importance to identify and share good practices, because many countries share the same challenges. He concluded by saying that each sector of society has a role to play in the removal of barriers, also the private sector.