New York Day 1 Civil Society CRPD Forum

On 11 June 2016 late at night I took a train to Schiphol to go to New York for the 9th Conference of State Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD, https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/conference-of-states-parties-to-the-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2/9thsession.html ). I am very grateful for the many donations that enabled me to be here. I am also very proud to be part of the work done by various networks that led to the revision of the COSP background paper on the Rights of Persons with Mental and Intellectual Disabilities by UN DESA, which is now reflecting the human rights approach instead of the medical model ( a real victory for us). So I was very happy with this result of our contributions even before the COSP started.

During the flight from Amsterdam to New York, I worked on my report of the European Commission’s Work Forum on CRPD Implementation in the EU and Member States. After a very long trip I arrived in my hotel: Holiday Inn Long Island. And after a short exploring walk outside, I went straight to bed around 8 PM to recover from the sleep deprivation. I slept very well.

On 12 June 2016 I woke up early and went to the UN Headquarters. I got my new access-badge, and then I found Salam Gomez, the other Co-Chair of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP, http://www.wnusp.net ), who was waiting at the entrance. Together we went to Conference Room 4, where the Civil Society CRPD Forum took place in the morning, with the theme: Leave No One Behind: the role of Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs) in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Also see http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/en/ninth-conference-states-parties-june-2016

The Civil Society CRPD Forum started with a welcoming session by H.E. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the General Assembly, and H.E. Joon, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations/ Chair of the Conference of State Parties Bureau/ President of ECOSOC, and by Lenin Voltaire Moreno Garces of the UN Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility, and Maryanne Diamond, Chair of the International Disability Alliance (IDA).

Then there were 2 panels. The first panel was moderated by Catalina Devandas, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and gave an introduction to the High-level Political Forum, and zoomed in on participation of persons with disabilities as stakeholders, which is necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.
Irina Zubcevic of the Division for Sustainable Development of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs gave some examples of progress of inclusion of the rights of persons with disabilities in the work of UN DESA, such as in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030, the High Level Political Forum, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Humanitarian Summit.
Vladimir Cuk of IDA then explained that in 2013 the High Level Political Forum had no participation of persons with disabilities. In 2014 there was half a minute, and in 2015 significant change came, when the disability community advocated broadly for their inclusion, leading to resolution 67-290, which gave space to civil society, and instead of Major Group Coordination, it is now called Stakeholder Engagement, which allows persons with disabilities to be involved . This is a historical change and a big recognition. The Disability Stakeholder Group (coordinated by IDA) is now co-chair of the Coordination Mechanism of Major Groups and Stakeholder Engagement. An official document on participation of persons with disabilities at the High Level Political Forum was submitted and delivered to all delegates in 6 official UN languages.
Alistair S. de Gaetano spoke on behalf of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities Malta about the process of the paper on the SDGs, which he had co-chaired. There had been 4 subgroups of content: 1- unfinished Millennium Development Goals, 2. Economic and social inequalities, 3. Disaster risk reduction and 4. Inequality, inclusion and implementation. In July, 22 countries who voluntarily signed up for review of their implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals will be getting a light 3-day review based on the paper, which can be found on www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org .
Med Ssengooba of Disability Rights Fund (DRF) spoke about opportunities presented by the High Level Political platform and how national DPOs can address them. IDA, APD and IDDC have developed a guiding toolkit for engagement and participation of DPOs.

Panel Two was moderated by Tim Wainwrights of ADD international and focussed on practical stapes towards implementation: engagement of persons with disabilities at the global, regional and national levels.
Facundo Chavez Penillas of OHCHR spoke about the intersection of human rights and development for persons with disabilities, and spoke about the UN CRPD and Agenda 2030. He explained that Agenda 2030 offers a huge opportunity. The SDGs and Agenda 2030 are both interlinked with the CRPD, and therefore the CRPD becomes a track for implementing and measuring the SDGs and Agenda 2030.
Priscille Geiser of the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) explained that since the adoption of the SDGs, it is no longer the question why it is necessary, but the question is How to do it? How to implement. IDDC and IDA with DRF are providing capacity building trainings (BRIDGE) and have already trained over 100 participants to perform the leadership and credible advocacy to the governments. It is important to have ambition, which she summarized as: go higher and together.
Maribel Derjani-Bayeh of UN Women spoke about the role of the UN in achieving inclusive implementation from the perspective of UN Women. 60% of persons with disabilities are women with disabilities, who are at risk of double discrimination (gender-based and disability-based). This intersectionality needs to be addressed.
Setareki Macanawai of the Pacific Disability Forum spoke about the importance of partnerships in implementation: CRPD article 4.3 and inclusion of persons with disabilities. Partnership needs to be empowering, of good quality, universal (mainstreamed), accessible, and allowing for leadership by DPOs zo they can freely say what they think of it.

After some questions and answers, the morning session was closed by H.E. Stephan Tafrov, permanent representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the UN and Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chair of UN CRPD Committee, moderated by Mohammed Ali Loufty of Disabled People’s International. Then it was lunchtime.

During lunch I went outside the UN (it is very hard to find a smoking area inside). When walking around, I felt like a rockstar, so many compliments and picture-requests because of my hair (unfortunately there has been a terrible shooting in a gay bar in Orlando, and now many big buildings are showing rainbow-colours out of solidarity – I totally fit in the scene here).
I was back at the UN before 3 and met some nice people. I then joined the session on the follow up to the High Level Meeting on Disability and Development of 2013. I saw a delegate sitting at the seat of the Netherlands, and I approached her, and asked if there will be any reservations or declarations made upon the Dutch ratification of the CRPD, which will be officially submitted tomorrow. She told me there were no reservations or declarations, and I am really happy with that.
I went to sit next to Salam in the meeting, but I couldn’t stay very long, because I had an appointment with Shantha of Human Rights Watch to talk about shackling, and then several others also joined, and it was a very interesting meeting where we discussed potential ways to address and solve this issue.

Around 6 PM the meetings ended, and we were all invited to go upstairs to the 4th floor for a reception to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN CRPD. There was a corner where you could take celebration-pictures, and all kinds of funny attributes were available. It was hilarious.

After the reception, I was invited to join dinner with Kathy and Meagan of CBM, and we went to a very nice place in East Village, Mighty Quinns Barbeque. It was really delicious, and I had great company. And then I made my way back to the hotel, but I got distracted by the rainbow lights, and took a detour, and almost got lost in an industrial zone, but eventually I got to the hotel. And even though it was already late, I still wanted to finish this blog, to have my head cleared for tomorrow.