DAA Editorial: CRPD and Development

From the recent issue of Our Rights from DAA in the UK:

The Convention promotes new rules on development cooperation

 

In December 2008, a number of major German INGOs hosted a conference in Berlin, Nothing About Us Without Us - Persons with Disabilities as Actors of Sustainable Development.

Unusually, all the speakers were disabled people. The main message coming out of this meeting, consciously reflecting the provisions of the Convention (especially Article 33), was that disability was no longer to be seen as a welfare issue, but more about the active participation of disabled people and the strengthening of their human rights.

 

The following recommendations were made:

 

·        Organisations working FOR persons with disabilities are often limited to programmes of welfare and care. As a result partnerships are recommended WITH DPOs to guarantee participation of persons with disabilities.

·        Instead of just providing resources it is important to encourage the contribution and involvement of DPOs in order to generate a feeling of ownership.

·        For sustainable development it makes more sense to train local staff (also disabled persons) in the South in order to become more independent in the long run from experts from the North.

·        Persons with disabilities need to become more visible, for example they need to appear as speakers at events, in public and in the media. Only in this way can the public perception of disability be changed.

·        Specific programmes for women with disabilities are needed, as they suffer multiple discrimination in many countries.

·        Persons with intellectual disabilities are virtually unrepresented by DPOs. To include this group more, information resources should also be published in simple language.

http://www.dpiap.org/resources/article.php?id=0000180&year=&genreid=09

 

DAA Editorial Comment

This is a useful start, but it is only a start. INGOs still have to learn how to be genuine allies by heading the advice of David Werner, who said "... it is time for non-disabled professionals to recognise the right of disabled people to self control, and therefore to gracefully step to more side, into a role where they, as professionals, are no longer on top but on tap.' Until they fully embrace this model of working, they will remain part of the problem, not part of the solution and disabled people, especially in the South, will be denied the rights the Convention seeks to guarantee.