Interview
Volume 4 Issue 13 - July 01, 2006
“In all likelihood, 2007 should see the signing of the Convention”: Anuradha Mohit
Anuradha Mohit, Special Rapporteur for Disability, National
Human Rights Commission, India, and Global Representative, National Human
Rights Institutions in the U.N. Ad Hoc Committee, shares her views on the
Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion
of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, in an interview with
Chitra S. Shankar.

1. What is Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection
and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities?
The key
words in the title are Comprehensive and Integral, and then Protection and
Promotion of Rights. The present Convention is looking at the complete and
full range of rights and freedoms in the context of persons with disabilities.
Thus it is a comprehensive convention. As for protection of rights, people with disabilities
have faced and are facing direct or indirect discrimination of various kinds
all over the world. When the law legitimises discrimination on grounds of
disability as in the Hindu Marriage Act, it is direct form of discrimination.
There are numerous examples of indirect discrimination. You construct buildings,
build transport systems, information systems, but you forget about the needs
of people with disabilities. So preventive measures under the law are to see that these discriminations
cease to exist.
Promotional aspects of the law are commonly known in the legal parlance
as positive rights - the recognition that people have rights and also that
the Government has a duty to ensure that people enjoy those rights, and in
the enjoyment of those rights all necessary measures are put in place. So
the Convention will protect as
well as promote the rights of people with disabilities.
2. What is Ad Hoc Committee on Comprehensive and Integral International
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons
with Disabilities?
But after
the very first session of the Ad Hoc Committee, two important things happened.
First, the Committee, after consultations with the member states, decided
that there is a need for a Convention. Second, the Ad Hoc Committee in its
report emphasised the need for wide participation by disability organisations
and national human rights institutions. This is the first international treaty
in which during the elaboration process, national human rights organisations
are being consulted. The conventional role of national human rights institutions
is only to monitor the compliance or implementation of those international
instruments domestically. After the third session, the Ad Hoc Committee decided
to establish a Working Group to harmonise these various proposals and views
on the Convention into one document. And that became the Draft Convention.
3. Who all are serving from
But I must
admit that there are many governments who have disabled people on their delegations
because the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee had encouraged right through
the resolution that governments should bring with them representatives of
disabled people and disability experts. I can recall
After the
first Ad Hoc Committee, human rights institutions were invited to participate.
We come under the International Coordinating Committee (I.C.C.) of the U.N.
High Commission for Human Rights. In the second session, I represented the
Asia-Pacific Forum, but from the third session onwards, I have been heading
the delegation of national human rights institutions in the Committee. I was
also part of the Working Group that drafted the first text of the Convention.
4. What has been
But definitely
there is another set of developing countries which I feel is much more progressive
than
I will place
5. Could you elaborate on the interventions made by you in these meetings
and the logic behind these points?
There are
a whole range of issues on which I have been speaking that I can say have
made an impact. I can give you certain examples.
Intervention
1: Under international human rights law there is a provision of special temporary
and positive measures to deal with problems of inequality. From the European
Union came a proposal that one of the general obligations on the government
is that it should ensure that separate measures are not maintained for people
with disabilities. I objected to this and I presented my view with examples.
For entry in the government service disabled people are given age relaxation
of ten years. Thats a separate measure. Based on common experience that disability
in the initial stages either takes away time because of its medical nature,
or sometimes due to lack of awareness, children with disabilities often reach
school very late. Therefore they will graduate late and thus start applying
for jobs late. So you need to make that provision. This intervention was most
difficult because the office of U.N. High Commissioner had supported the stand
taken by European Union not to maintain separate standards for people with
disabilities. But finally we won.
Intervention
2: There was a debate on maltreatment of people with disabilities in institutions.
There was a prevention clause being carved out, and I wanted to put it under
the Article on prevention from torture. Then again, many states including
6. There is very little awareness in our country regarding such an important
development like the drafting of the Convention. What has been / is being
done to ensure greater participation of disabled people in the framing of
the Convention?
At the U.N.
level there is a genuine effort to ensure greater participation by people
with disability, and it has established the U.N. Voluntary Fund to facilitate
that participation. Above all the U.N. has urged governments to include disabled
people and representatives of disability organisations on their delegation,
and some have done so. The resolution has also asked the governments to hold
wide consultations with disability organisations.
On that
front N.H.R.C. has been convening consultations with disability organisations
including Government representatives. We had one in Southern India, one in
Eastern India, and one in
On the part
of Government of India, I remember participating in two consultative meetings
attended by disability organisations and other experts. It was a half-day
event. To be very honest it was more like a window dressing, to look good
on paper. If you really want to consult people you have to give them time.
Its such a huge Convention and I didnt see many disability rights activists
attending these meetings.
7. Were issues like gender and socio-economic divide adequately addressed
during the negotiations?
They were
very well addressed. There is a very powerful gender lobby within the Committee.
I think there is already a broad agreement about the special circumstances
of women with disabilities. But we have problems regarding the way in which
this perspective should be built into the Convention. There are two schools
of thought right now. One school believes that there should be a separate
article on the rights of women with disabilities and there is another that
thinks that the gender component should be integrated into several articles
which are important from gender perspective.
Economic
and social divide has been attended to in the Convention from various perspectives.
First of all, the world itself is divided into developed and developing countries.
The universe we live in is diverse. In order to address that diversity, we
have done two things. One of them already exists under international law
civil and political rights such as right to life, right to vote, freedom of
association, etc. These are seen as justiciable rights, which means that they
would be immediately enforced by the state, because they are seen as the starting
point of any democratic society.
There is
another set of rights economic, social and cultural the nature of these
rights is such that their implementation needs financial resources, time and
technical expertise. A measure of international cooperation has been conceived
to assist states who have limitations on account of economy and technical
know-how. This Convention is also creating a new obligation for the developed
countries to bridge that social and economic divide. All the development aid
through the World Bank, European Union, Danida, etc., should incorporate a
disability component thus ensuring that the money given for development programmes
in any country will lead to disability inclusive development.
On international
cooperation, I must tell you that in this Convention, it is coming as a stand
alone guarantee, which means theres going to be an article dealing with international
cooperation, which is a powerful arrangement, if it gets adopted in the end.
8. When do you expect the Convention to be ratified?
Right now
we havent even completed the drafting or elaboration of the Convention. The
drafts are there, but there is need for further negotiation to reach a consensus
position. On at least five Articles there is no agreement. The current text
has 34 Articles of which 18 Articles are fully negotiated and there are no
issues pending. There are 11 others on which some minor issues are still to
be resolved. But the five on which no agreement has been reached till now
relate to the recognition of disabled persons as equal before the law; free
and informed consent issue; issue of involuntary treatment or forced interventions;
issue of right to health; and the integrity of the disabled person.
Apart from
this, one Article on which discussion has never taken place is international
monitoring. I think this Committee will spend considerable time on discussion
on the need for an international monitoring body. On this aspect, the Government
of India is not very forthcoming. They are supporting national monitoring
but not international monitoring.
In a nutshell, the ratification stage has not come, but we are trying to complete the drafting and negotiation process in the next session. If we are very efficient in our approach, we may achieve that end. If we do not, then there may be another session in January. But in all likelihood, 2007 should see the signing of the Convention.
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Interview
- “In all likelihood, 2007 should see the signing of the Convention”: Anuradha Mohit
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