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NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY
Summary of International Watch Recommendations for
NCD Consideration and Action
April 6 & 7, 2000 Meeting
Washington, DC
International
Watch Recommendations to the National Council on Disability:
Setting an International Policy Agenda
Background
On April 6 and 7, 2000, the National Council on Disability's
Foreign Policy Team (FPT) and International Watch (IW) met to discuss
policy-related issues that NCD should address as it sets for itself
an international agenda to promote the full inclusion of children
and adults with disabilities around the world.
On the first day, officials from federal agencies
having international programs and overseas operations were invited
to share their agencies' policies and initiatives to include people
with disabilities at every level of their operations. IW and FPT
members, as well as official observers with disability expertise
from various backgrounds, had the opportunity to ask questions and
offer observations to the federal agency representatives regarding
the inclusion of people with disabilities in U.S. programs and facilities.
This dialogue was followed by discussion among IW members relating
to furthering international recognition of the human rights of persons
with disabilities. On the second day, IW and FPT members deliberated
on the input from the federal agencies and the policy areas discussed
by IW members to develop a list of suggested actions for advancing
the human rights of people with disabilities in the international
arena.
What follows is an identification of the five areas
in which NCD's International Watch recommended actions that might
be taken over the next several years to promote inclusion abroad.
Discussions that occurred during both days of the meeting were captured
primarily in these five categories. The Foreign Policy Team and
International Watch recognize that NCD itself may not be the appropriate
primary actor or leader in each of these areas, but NCD is being
asked to 1) recognize these areas as having import, and 2) when
appropriate, identify leaders other than itself (or partners with
which it can work) to address these issues.
International Policy-Related Issues
Recommended for NCD Review and Action
- Work with the State Department
to Strengthen its Policies and Improve its Practices Related to
Persons with Disabilities
Intensify efforts to bring perceptions among IW members about
the State Department's disability-related practices to the attention
of the Department's leaders. Do this so as both to strengthen
the State Department's inclusion activities and to put its power
within the U.S. government (i.e., Congress and other U.S. agencies),
as well as its international influence, to good use.
- Urge the U.S. Congress to Pass
a Disabilities Version of the Percy Amendment
Use the Percy Amendment as a model for legislation to promote
the integration of persons with disabilities (PWDs) into the mainstream
economic lives of countries.
- Enforce Existing Disability-Related
International Laws, Conventions, and Standards
Promote the use of existing international laws, conventions, and
standards as tools for advancing, monitoring, and assuring the
rights of persons with disabilities.
- Promote Holding an International
Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Support within the U.S. and abroad the idea of an international
convention on the human rights of persons with disabilities, as
well as activities related to planning and convening it.
- Urge U.S. Government Agencies
and NGOs to Articulate, Advance, and Coordinate Inclusion Activities
Promote inclusion-related activities in U.S. government agencies
(and NGOs), such as: 1) encouraging each agency to articulate
its disability policy and identify measures for achieving inclusion
in its work nationally and internationally; 2) putting agency
expertise in the field of inclusion (i.e., NIDRR research) to
work overseas; and 3) improving the connection among agencies
of disability experts and disability-related activities.
Activities in each of these five categories are described
in greater detail in the pages that follow.
Assumptions Behind International Watch
Recommendations to NCD
- IW is especially concerned about the many persons
with disabilities wrongly confined in institutions, including
persons with psychiatric disabilities. NCD will continue to work
to make sure that they and other disenfranchised constituencies
are at the table with other PWDs as planning and action are undertaken
to address this issue.
- Disabilities should be overtly included in all
U.S. government language and activities related to diversity.
- If programs that focus on prevention of
disabilities are supported, every effort should be made to ensure
that these programs do not discriminate against women and girls
with disabilities in their reproductive capacities.
- It is important to track demographic and statistical
information so that progress or the lack thereof toward full inclusion
of people with disabilities can be measured and used as a base
for expanding inclusion programs.
- Involuntary institutionalization of children and
adults because of their disabilities violates their human rights
and dignity. The U.S. should actively encourage other nations
to implement alternatives such as group homes and community-based
services that integrate people with disabilities into mainstream
society.
- PWDs must be part of the policy-making process
at all levels.
- Throughout, disability rights, including the right
to accessibility, should be addressed as human rights issues.
Action Area 1--Work with the State Department
to Strengthen its Policies and Improve its Practices Related to
Persons with Disabilities
Intensify efforts to bring perceptions among IW members
about the State Department's disability-related practices to the
attention of the Department's leaders. Do this so as both to strengthen
the State Department's inclusion activities and to put its power
within the U.S. government (i.e., Congress and other U.S. agencies),
as well as its international influence, to good use.
Actions:
- Ask for a meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright ASAP to present International Watch priorities.
- Urge the State Department to establish an Office
of Disabilities that reports to the Secretary. Offer NCD as an
advisory group during the period of time it is being set up, AND
as an internal advisory group to that office once it is established.
- Urge the State Department to officially establish
and fully implement its disability policy (with enforcement mechanisms).
- Urge the State Department's Bureau for International
Organizations (IO) routinely to ask NCD for comments on the documents
it develops or reviews.
- Ask the State Department to urge Congress to ratify
the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on
the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women with Disabilities.
- Urge the State Department to actively support the
idea of holding an international convention on the human rights
of PWDs.
- Help the State Department's Human Rights office
do a better job of reporting on the human rights issues of PWDs
internationally.
- Have the State Department offer disability sensitivity
training to all staff, including consular employees, with special
emphasis on human rights officers.
- Recommend to the State Department that any agency
or entity funded by the U.S. government that operates overseas
must follow written guidelines related to inclusion. (This includes
contractors and NGOs.)
- Urge the State Department to fund training abroad,
particularly for grassroots disability advocates and NGOs, on
disability issues and advocacy tools such as international conventions
and tribunals addressing human rights.
- Urge the State Department to support the Office
of the UN Special Rapporteur, with conditions.
- Urge the State Department to have the Secretary
or Assistant Secretaries, as a matter of course when they travel
overseas, talk first with disability NGOs for current information
related to inclusion and ways in which the State Department might
further promote inclusion.
- Ask the State Department to use discretionary funds
to train PWDs about advocacy for human rights.
- Urge the State Department to give priority to having
PWDs plan and attend international summits.
- Urge the State Department to make its foreign and
domestic facilities accessible and to come up immediately with
a transition plan to accomplish exactly this.
- Ask the State Department to use its leverage to
strongly urge the UN to improve the accessibility of its facility
in New York City.
- Ask the State Department to issue a report on the
situation of PWDs within refugee camps emphasize in the appropriate
national and international arenas the need for global action to
address the critical needs of refugee PWDs.
- Urge the State Department to uphold the applicability
of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in federal facilities
and programs overseas.
- Invite local NGOs engaged in disability advocacy
within their countries to visit U.S. embassies abroad.
- Follow up with Assistant Secretary of State, Harold
Koh, on his recent initiatives on behalf of people with disabilities.
- Train NGOs in strategies for obtaining and accounting
for the use of public and private grant money. (USAID as well).
- Give the Department of State a list of domestic
and international NGOs involved in disability issues and encourage
their interaction with these NGOs.
- Encourage more people with disabilities to take
foreign and civil service exams.
Action Area 2--Urge Congress to Pass a Disabilities
Version of the Percy Amendment
Use the Percy Amendment as model for legislation promoting
the integration of PWDs into the mainstream economic lives of countries.
Actions:
- Develop disability rights legislation that follows
the framework of the Percy Amendment using disability language.
Sections 103 through 107 of this act shall be administered
so as to give particular attention to those programs, projects,
and activities which tend to integrate people with disabilities
into the national economies of foreign countries, thus improving
their status and assisting the total development.
Note: There was a "rump" group at the April 6 &
7, 2000 meeting that addressed this issue and discussed practical
and strategic ways to promote a disability-oriented variation on
the Percy amendment.
Action Area 3--Enforce Existing Disability-Related
International Laws, Conventions, and Standards
Promote the use of existing international laws, conventions,
standards and norms as tools to advance, monitor, and assure the
rights of persons with disabilities.
Actions:
- Public and private sector agencies promoting disability
rights should fund training for national and international consumer
groups and advocacy organizations about the how existing international
human rights laws, conventions, standards and norms can be used
as tools in promoting accessibility and inclusion around the world.
- Put these laws, conventions, and standards to work
internationally and within those specific regions to which some
of them apply (such as the OAS). This means monitoring them, enforcing
them, making the public aware of their provisions, and maintaining
pressure on countries to ensure their domestic laws and practices
conform to the legal standards and principles they have ratified.
- Where those laws exist but enforcement bodies or
mechanisms lack the resources needed to monitor and implement
them, help the responsible oversight entities get the resources
they need for the job. Also help them build up the infrastructure
needed to sustain public attention on these issues.
- Promote international exchanges of 1) advocates
and grassroots organizations to share their achievements and work
together as a united front, and 2) lawyers, advocates and grassroots
organizations to share and compare their respective strategies
for implementing and enforcing domestic and international laws
and standards upholding the rights of people with disabilities.
- Encourage disability experts with knowledge of
how existing international laws and conventions apply to the human
rights of PWDs to serve as advisors throughout the Copenhagen
+5 Conference.
Action Area 4--Promote Proposal for an International
Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Support the idea of an international convention on
the human rights of persons with disabilities, as well as the activities
related to planning and convening it, within the U.S. and abroad.
Actions:
- Support the function of the UN's Special Rapporteur,
with specific conditions that strengthen his monitoring activities.
- Work to get the UN's Standard Rules revised in
order to include specific issues related to women, children, and
housing.
- Build on the base of the four provisions identified
in the Beijing Declaration.
- Make sure that the language of a new human rights
convention would carry the same weight as existing international
conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC).
- Ensure that the new convention includes an enforcement
mechanism.
- Identify strategies and develop specific language
that will be persuasive to both the State Department and Congress
on the issue of disability rights as human rights.
- Educate consumer groups about the need for a convention
and enlist them to help promote it.
- Call an international meeting to develop this convention.
Action Area 5--Urge U.S. Government Agencies
and NGOs to Articulate, Advance, and Coordinate Inclusion Activities
Promote inclusion-related activities in U.S. government
agencies (and NGOs), including: 1) requiring each agency to articulate
a written disability policy and to identify measures for achieving
inclusion in its work nationally and internationally; 2) putting
agency expertise in the field of inclusion (i.e., NIDRR research)
to work overseas; and 3) improving the effectiveness of collaborative
efforts by different federal agencies to promote the inclusion of
people with disabilities.
Actions:
- Establish mechanisms and strategies for the disability
offices of different federal agencies to coordinate and collaborate
in developing programs and activities that effectively promote
the inclusion of people with disabilities both nationally and
internationally.
- Establish a federal interagency council or committee
that focuses on disability primarily from an international perspective.
- Strongly urge ALL U.S. government agencies to articulate
their disability policy and to include monitoring mechanisms that
will ensure its full implementation.
- Urge all agencies to include PWDs in their policy-making
bodies
- Urge agencies to advertise their job openings with
disability advocacy groups and more actively to recruit PWDs into
their agency and contractor workforces both nationally and overseas.
- Strongly urge U.S. government agencies to be proactive
(rather than reactive) vis-a-vis disabilities.
- Stipulate that requests for proposal (RFP)s and
other contractor agreements include language requiring PWDs to
be part of every element of agency programs - planning, administering,
receiving services, evaluating, etc..
- Monitor countries receiving funds through foreign
aid programs to ensure implementation of inclusive practices.
- Make sure agencies have line items in their budgets
that provide resources for accommodation expenses.
- Ensure that the team of peer reviewers for RFPs
responses includes experts with disabilities.
- Compensate PWD reviewers for their professional
work on review boards and advisory councils.
- Give more U.S. agency offices specific international
authority (such as OSERS).
- Urge agencies to specifically include disabilities
as part of their language and activities related to diversity.
- Support families that have children with disabilities
as employees in offices and programs abroad.
- Require U.S. agencies that operate around the world
to apply U.S. disability policy on inclusion as they construct
and remodel buildings, employ people, and run programs.
- Reallocate funding that focuses on specific categories
of disabilities to provide whatever accommodations are needed,
regardless of disability type, across all government programs.
- Insist that the UN address abuses against people
with disabilities in their human rights reports processes.
Miscellaneous Issues and Strategies Suggested by
IW but not Within the Above Five Categories:
Strategies Related to NGOs:
- Train NGO community to understand the realities
of foreign policy.
- Note: USAID and Peace Corps have overseas training
programs for PWDs on how to use the agencies' missions abroad
for work opportunities. Promote this program by getting PWDs overseas
in order to take advantage of the program.
- Help smaller NGOs that are inclusive in their practice
to compete with larger NGOs for funds.
- Recognize that NGOs play a critical role in putting
pressure on government.
- Establish a US branch of Disabled People International
(DPI).
- Find a mechanism that requires U.S. NGOs operating
abroad to use inclusive practices (e.g. Leon Sullivan building
non-accessible schools).
- Develop training programs in advocacy for grassroots
organizations based on the Swedish and Canadian models.
Strategies Related to Communication:
- USIA's World Net is a vehicle for connecting people
from around the world vis-a-vis disability issues. Recognize this
and work to promote it.
- Make it easier to find disability-related staff
and information within US agencies.
- Share information across agencies and NGOs on the
status of refugees with disabilities, land mine victims and people
with disabilities resulting from work-related injuries.
General Strategies:
Work to create bridges and bring together domestic
programs and policies with related international programs and policies.
Make national disability policy our country's international policy
as well.
- Strengthen the ties among presidential appointees
with disabilities so that they can jointly advocate.
- Send people with disabilities to countries where
domestic laws restrict PWDs from equal employment opportunities
(i.e., since PWDs cannot be judges in Peru, send a judge with
disabilities to Peru as a model)
- Urge Congress to use its influence with the State
Department and USAID to get them to focus on programs that promote
inclusion.
- Urge Congress to quiz agencies about what they
are doing to promote inclusion.
- Urge Congress to require that children and adults
confined in institutions overseas be de-institutionalized as a
condition for the delivery of foreign aid.
- Write RFPs and evaluation programs to include requirements
for requesting and reporting on issues that affect PWDs.
- Urge US government agencies to require peer reviews
that include people with disabilities when making funding decisions
on programs. (Learn best practices, e.g. peer review, from agencies
that are doing it well.)
- Promote technology as a means to level the playing
field for PWDs around the world.
- Persuade major donor organizations to only fund
projects that are accessible.
- Urge more PWDs to sign onto the UN list of vendors.
- Encourage states to play advocacy roles for PWDs
especially as states are increasingly getting involved in foreign
investments/businesses.
- Identify PWDs to attend the Millennium Summit Fall
2000.
NCD Strategies:
- Maintain the stance of promoting inquiry and dialogue.
- Urge people to start thinking right now about the
next generation of NCD board members.
- Seek interagency money to support NCD's international
work.
Offers and Suggestions:
Ways NCD can make better use of International Watch:
- Lucy Wong-Hernandez offered her knowledge of the
UN, as well as information available to her through her UN-related
activities, as resources to IW.
- Dave Henderson and Rami Rabby made similar offers.
- NCD should tie IW members more to Gladnet and should
help members share more Internet resources with each other.
- Re: Telcons: (1) Send documents to be discussed
on IW calls sooner before those calls take place. (2) Avoid using
speaker phones when you are on the call.
- Have face-to-face meetings every now and then so
that more substantive work can be tackled (like the April 6-7
meeting), even if such meetings occur only for IW sub-groups.
- Look for IW members when attending other meetings
and attempt to caucus with them then.
Immediate "To Do's":
- Request a meeting with the Secretary of State at
her earliest opportunity.
- Get disability-related language to USAID for their
RFPs.
- Get back to the representative from the Department
of Commerce on Day 1 and respond to his request for input to their
programs.
- Find a way to get women with disabilities to be
part of the delegation at the Beijing +5 meeting in NY.
- Also get PWDs involved with the Copenhagen +5 meeting,
and make sure that issues of importance to women are addressed
there.
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