Experts Urge Governments, United Nations to Ensure Greater Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities, Albinism, as Third Committee Continues Human Rights Debate
For the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said Chair
Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, identified the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls with disabilities as a matter requiring urgent action. To identify and eliminate harmful practices, States must provide families with access to legal mechanisms, and rather than simply facilitating care, consider the opinions of persons with disabilities. States had an obligation to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights by adapting legal and political frameworks, ensuring comprehensive sexual education, providing inclusive health services and empowering persons with disabilities, she stressed.
The international community must mitigate and prohibit all forms of harmful practice, said Ikponwosa Ero, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism, citing witchcraft and trafficking in body parts as particular concerns. There had been reports of fatalities and mutilations in three countries over the past month, she decried.
In the afternoon, the Committee explored the freedom of opinion and expression, among other issues, with the Special Rapporteur on that topic warning that public trust in information was under attack by political demagogues, and the particular use of “fake news”. He cautioned Governments against making, sponsoring or encouraging statements they reasonably knew to be false.
Also presenting reports were
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) will reconvene at
Background
The Third Committee met today to continue its debate on the promotion and protection of human rights. (For more information, please see Press Release GA/SHC/4205).
Interactive Dialogues — Persons with Disabilities
She further noted that the Committee had decided to maintain summary records only for dialogues with States parties and meetings in which the Committee considered communications under the Optional Protocol, to make efficient use of resources. With the Committee's meeting time increasing from two to eight weeks since 2011, she observed that human resources had increased by just two staff members, asking for additional resources commensurate with the Committee's workload. The allocation of additional meeting time for the Committee should be coupled with budget appropriations for the provision of accessibility items, such as international sign language, national sign language interpretation, braille, captioning, plain language and
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Ms. DEGENER, responding, said universal ratification of the Convention was needed, as was implementation of its Article 33 on independent international monitoring, in which disabled people could play an important role. The Committee had adopted a general comment on women, she noted, which offered examples of how to improve the situation of women and girls with disabilities, as did the thematic report of the
To a question on how to address use of the word “handicapped” in the French translation, she said the Committee discussed the correct language a great deal, noting that the word “handicapped” should be substituted with “persons with disabilities” or “disabled persons”. On disaster risk reduction, she said the Committee had recently issued a statement on that topic, adding that the tsunami affecting
CATALINA DEVANDAS AGUILAR, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, identified the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls with disabilities as a matter of vital importance that required urgent action. In addition to gender-based discrimination, women and girls with disabilities faced obstacles to accessing the health and education services they needed. Girls and young women with disabilities continued to be sterilized against their will, she stressed, noting that the practice exposed them to greater threats of sexual exploitation. Involuntary sterilization must be eliminated, along with other forms of violence such as forced abortion, she said. The best way to ensure the development of women and girls with disabilities was to guarantee their sexual health and rights were protected.
It was a mistake to believe that the sexuality of young women and girls with disabilities did not deserve attention, she said. Services for them were limited, placing them at higher risk of sexually transmitted disease, early marriage, sexual violence and unwanted pregnancy. Too often, health providers discriminated against that group. States had an obligation to protect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls with disabilities by adapting legal and political frameworks, ensuring comprehensive sexual education, providing inclusive health services and empowering persons with disabilities, she concluded.
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Ms. AGUILAR replied that meeting the needs of women and girls with disabilities called for greater international coordination. Good practices to promote their sexual and reproductive health included a national directive issued in
For their part, the
Turning to the relevance of disaggregated data, she said information on issues directly affecting disabled persons was vital to assessing progress in achieving the
Persons with Albinism
IKPONWOSA ERO, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism, reiterated that people with albinism in certain parts of the world were being hunted and killed for the harvesting of their body parts. Globally, persons with albinism faced extreme forms of stigma, she stressed, citing reports of fatalities and mutilations in three countries over the past month. In her report, she set out to review human rights standards applicable to persons with albinism and determine what progress had been made.
Persons with albinism encountered multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, she said. While the
The right to life of persons with albinism was systematically violated, she warned, adding that failure to combat the impunity of perpetrators was a major issue. The international community must mitigate and prohibit all forms of harmful practice, she said, citing witchcraft and trafficking in body parts as particular concerns. Several countries affected by attacks had developed national action plans on that matter and a regional action plan had recently been endorsed by the
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Ms. ERO, responding, said
Turning to the regional action plan, she said new partnerships were being explored to make progress towards achieving the
Freedom of Religion, Belief
He urged the international community to narrow the gap between commitment and action to ensure that everyone had the right to freedom of religion or belief by putting in place transparent, credible and accountable policies. He called on States to repeal laws that discriminated on the basis of religion and belief, and those for anti‑blasphemy. Criminal sanctions penalizing violent and discriminatory acts should also be enforced, he said, stressing that particular attention must be paid to protecting religious minorities, women, children, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex communities, migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons. He urged States, faith leaders and civil society groups to use the recommendations outlined in relevant resolutions and declarations, as well as to promote religious literacy and interfaith dialogue.
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The representative of Lichtenstein noted that migration had led to greater interaction among diverse religious groups and asked how international mechanisms should be designed to mitigate religious intolerance resulting from migration.
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Mr. SHAHEED, responding, stressed the importance of dialogue across faith communities, which created a spirit of cooperation and built trust. Educating people about different religions was also crucial, as prejudice often stemmed from a lack of understanding. He called on States to invest in such efforts, pointing out that the freedom of religion could only be achieved if it existed alongside the freedom of expression and the rule of law, which respected such civil liberties as the freedom of belief. He cautioned States against aligning themselves with specific religious groups, as that would feed distrust, and rather, take an introspective look into the state of freedom of religion and belief in their territories. Countries could learn from their own best practices and challenges, he said, recalling that in today's age of intolerance, there was potential to promote greater understanding of religion and belief.
Freedom of Opinion, Expression
The first step to addressing those issues was ensuring international organizations followed norms of freedom of information, he said. Access to information was an essential component of good governance and the rule of law, and the
Turning to disinformation, he said “fake news” was undermining public trust in information. He urged States not to make, sponsor or encourage statements they reasonably knew to be false, or to interfere in the work of Internet service providers. Noting that private companies now facilitated unprecedented sharing of information through various platforms, he concluded by saying he would assess the impact of content regulations on the freedom of expression.
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Mr. KAYE, responding, said the gap between intergovernmental organizations and their constituencies was among the main obstacles to identifying policies that promoted access to information. Organizations must demonstrate an eagerness to push for such policies and accept that a sole focus on protecting their secrets was no longer tenable.
He called for organizations to promote whistle-blower protections characterized by strong, effective internal processes that advanced change. They should include sanctions against those retaliating against whistle-blowers. Also, avenues should be created to allow whistle-blowers to reach media outlets. Importantly, any office handling whistle-blower protections must have specific expertise on that issue, he stressed.
Promoting civil society engagement, including in consultations, would allow for robust protections of the freedom of opinion and expression to develop. Such engagement was in keeping with the obligations of intergovernmental organizations, he said, stressing that protecting the reputations of individuals, notably human rights defenders, was a priority.
Foreign Debt
JUAN PABLO BOHOSLAVSKY, Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, said his report studied the human rights implications of debt disputes submitted to the international investment arbitration system. That system had not been designed to enforce financial obligations, and thus, could be problematic from a human rights and debt sustainability perspective. It was necessary to ensure human rights protection during financial crises requiring debt restructuring, he said, the success of which should be determined by whether it had minimized the social and human cost of a financial crisis.
His report contained five recommendations, he said, among them, that bilateral and multilateral investment agreements should undergo human rights impact assessments before they were concluded. In the context of investment dispute settlements, arbitration tribunals must consider human rights law as applicable for the interpretation of investment treaties. He reviewed his most recent reports, initiatives and projects carried out over the year, noting that the
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