PRESS RELEASE ABOUT THE NATIONAL COALITION’S FIRST CONSULTATION
Several Disabled Persons’ Organizations and Persons with Disabilities have come together as a national coalition towards highlighting the Government response towards the rights of persons with disabilities in India. The coalition will hold its first deliberation at Hotel Lemon Tree on Thursday and Friday (13th and 14th December 2018) and attempt to bring out an outline for a parallel report to be submitted to the UN CRPD Committee/World Body.
The conference is centred around equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to work and employment, for all persons with all disabilities. The purpose of the conference is the drafting of a Parallel Report to the United Nations about the status of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that India ratified eleven years ago.
It is a matter of grave concern that India has filed its first and only Country Report belatedly in November 2015 although it had to be filed in 2009 and every four years thereafter. It is of still greater concern that the perspective of persons with disabilities has been completely overlooked in this report. The National Coalition has been formed to overcome this major anomaly. “Nothing About Us Without Us” has been a watchword for the Disability Movement and in this context, the country submitting its report without consulting us judiciously, the stakeholders, is a fundamental flaw as far as the Country Report is concerned.
The Coalition’s focus is towards putting together a parallel report as a response to the Country report and to arrive at list of issues to be presented to the CRPD Committee. This is a step towards the realization of the rights under the CRPD for the majority of the most underprivileged, marginalised and disadvantaged groups in the world.
These deliberations, in which about 55 DPOs and persons with disabilities are participating is being supported by AccessAbility, Bapu Trust for Mind and Body Discourse Pune, Equals CPSJ Chennai, Swadhikaar Hyderabad and facilitated by DRPI AWARE.