Published:
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
It took seven years, eight months, 29 days, and two administrations, but on June 25, T&T ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The convention and its Optional Protocol adopted in 2006 followed decades of work by the UN to “change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities.” The convention was opened for signature on March 30, 2007. T&T signed on September 27, 2007.
With this step in the right direction, I decided to look at how others treated the process and what was employed nationally to ensure that the tenets were properly embraced by those for whom it is meant—all disabilities: physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments.
I decided to educate myself about treaty ratification. With the recent intervention in T&T of US disability rights attorney John Wodatch, one of the drafters of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I thought to look at how the US undertook ratification. I was intrigued.
I discovered the US has not ratified the CRPD.
It turns out that in some democracies ratification is part of standard legislative procedure, which means that the Parliament has an intervention—possibly with the input of the national or disability community—before the country executes an instrument of ratification. Though modelled on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and with major intervention from American advocates/activists, the CRPD has failed to achieve the senatorial super-majority of 67 votes required for ratification in the US.
I found that on last December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, American disability leaders expressed outrage over the Senate’s inaction on ratification.
The United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD) Web site says, “As the end of the 114th Congress nears, it has become clear to disability leaders that the Senate will not pass the resolution for ratification of the CRPD this year.”
The site says that the Disability Treaty is supported by more than 800 disability, civil rights, and faith groups, as well as more than 20 of the top veterans’ service organisations and many major businesses, as well as the US Chamber of Commerce (www.usicd.org).
Marca Bristo, retiring president of the USICD, is described as a tireless advocate for the rights of the disabled for more than 30 years—a champion—having helped to craft the ADA and providing essential input into the CRPD. In a May 2015 interview, she explained the setback.
“The US does not like to sign treaties unless it feels it can live up to the mandates in them, “said Bristo. “Therefore it was a good long review, with all the agencies of government looking at their respective agencies’ obligations. Then the Justice and State departments issued a transmittal document to send this over to the Senate.
“Once it gets to the Senate, it has to give its advice and consent, which requires a super majority or 67 votes, and then after the Senate does that it goes back to the (US) president and the president then signs it. Right now we’re in the phase where we’re waiting for the Senate consent so that the president can sign the ratification document,” Bristo said.
Our “event” was ballyhooed as “a natural progression of an issue that has been taken very seriously by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration,” and “signifies the Government’s firm commitment to ensuring that persons with disabilities in our country are afforded all of the rights which flow from this binding legal instrument.”
Our ratification, whose wheels, I suspect, started turning late in the Government’s term, came during a prorogued Parliament. And we’re hard-pressed to recall the touted seriousness and commitment.
The story also said, “In her first address to the United Nations in 2010, Persad-Bissessar championed the rights of people living with disabilities, saying there was a critical need to close this gap in the protection of human rights. “
So, curious, I read and reread that statement at the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2010, exactly three years to the date of T&T signing the CRPD, but couldn’t find the PM’s championing of people living with disabilities. Then I asked others to read in case I had missed the reference.
The story further said, “T&T’s ratification of the Convention will now further propel policies and programmes aimed at providing opportunities for persons with disabilities to realise their fullest potential.”
In what seems to me as a haste to score political points, I’m again left offside, apprehensively awaiting information on which are our “respective agencies “ charged with propelling policies and programmes.
While I acknowledge (disconsolately) that we do not bring to bear investiture in these matters as the US or the UK, which ratified in 2009, I’m wondering, if not the Hansard, where can I access our determination for our ratification?
And to what agency should I turn to determine my place in the emerging scenario, both as client of the system and advocate for combating stereotypes and prejudices and promoting awareness on/of mental disabilities?
I’m pleased that we’re steering ahead, but the more-than-ample vacant rhetoric unsettles me.
Sport
The national master’s swim team at the 2015 UANA Pan American Masters Championships in Medellin, Colombia, last month. Back row from left: Louis Martin, Adrian Murphy, Anton Gopaulsingh, Daniel Newallo, Patrick Lee Loy. Middle row from left: Strasser Sankar, Mosi Denoon, Raul Viera, Jeffrey Ferdinand. Front row from left: Rochelle Pierre, Shinelle Padmore, Debbie Attin, Wendy Ammon and Natalie Attin.