Challenges in the new millennium
for women with disabilities
International Conference organized by
the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI)
Madrid, 27th – 29th
June 2012
Auditorium
ONCE Sports and Culture Centre
Paseo de la Habana, 208
28036 Madrid
Spain
PROGRAMME
Wednesday 27th
June
14:00-15:00 Welcome and registration
15:00-16:00 Opening
Speakers:
Yannis Vardakastanis, President, European Disability Forum
Diane Richler, President, International Disability Alliance
Luis Cayo Pérez Bueno, President,
CERMI
Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice,
Fundamental Rights and Citizenship (video message)
Michelle Bachelet, Executive
Director, UN Women (video message)
16:00-16:40 Keynote address 1: A life
testimony: personal triumph
Speaker: Gennet
Corcuera, young woman and deafblind activist
Presenter and moderator: Isabel Martínez Lozano, former Secretary General for Social Policies and Consumer Affairs
16:40-17:00 Open floor
17:00-17:30
Coffee break
17:30-20:30 SESSION 1: WOMEN WITH
DISABILITIES IN UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES
17:30-19:00 Panel 1: United Nations
treaty-based bodies
Co-ordinator: Cristina
Fraile, Director
Human Rights Office, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation
□ Convention on the rights of the child (CRC): Jorge Cardona, member of the Committee
□ International covenant on economic, social and
cultural rights (CESCR): Heisoo Shin,
member of the
Committee
□ Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment (CAT): Fernando
Mariño, member
of the Committee
□ Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
(CRPD): Stig Langvad, member of the Committee
□ Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), Emilio Ginés
Santidrián, member of the Committee
19:00-20:30 Panel 2: Civil society and
the treaty-based bodies
Co-ordinator: Jorge
Araya, Secretary
to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
□ International Women's Rights Action Watch
Asia Pacific, Ivy Josiah
□ International Disability Alliance, Stefan
Tromel, Executive Director
□ Human Rights Watch, Gauri
Van Gulik,
Global Advocate, Women’s Rights Division
□ Spanish Committee of Representatives of
Persons with Disabilities, Ana Sastre, Commissioner for human rights
Thursday 28th
June
09:00-14:30 SESSION 2: VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES
09:00-09:40 Keynote address 2: United
Nations’ efforts in the field of violence against women with disabilities.
Speaker: Gabriela Guzman, Associate
Human Rights Officer, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Presenter and moderator: Laura Seara, Socialist Party spokesperson on the Committee for Disability Policies in
the Spanish Parliament and former Secretary of State for Equality
09:40-10:00 Open floor
10:00-11:30 Panel 3: Public authority
commitments towards violence against women with disabilities
Co-ordinator: Ignacio
Tremiño, General
Director for disability policy, Ministry for Health, Social Services and
Equality
□ Spain. Blanca
Hernández Oliver, Government Delegate for Gender-based Violence
□ Denmark. Katrine
Wilms Andersen, Ministry of Social Affairs and
Integration
□ Germany. Angelika Diggins-Rösner, Federal Ministry for
Family, Older people, Women and Youth
11:30-12:00
Coffee break
12:00-13:30 Panel 4: Violence against
women with disabilities as seen from civil society
Co-ordinator: Carmen Quintanilla, President of
the Equality Committee, Spanish Parliament
□ Mental Health Europe, María Jesús San Pío
□ European Women´s Lobby, Cécile Gréboval
□ European Network of (ex-)Users and
Survivors of Psychiatry, Mary Nettle
□ Nepal Disabled Women’s Association, Tika
Dahal
□ Stars of Hope, Ola Abu
Alghaib
□
Asociación
Dones No Estándares, Carmen Riu
□ State Confederation of Deaf People (Spain),
Kizkitza Velasco
13:30-15:00
Lunch
15:00-19:00 SESSION 3: THE SEXUAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS OF WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES
15:00-15:40 Keynote address 3: The sexual
and reproductive rights of women with disabilities
Speaker: Christina
Ryan, Women
with Disabilities Australia
Presenter and moderator: Teresa Palahí, ONCE Vice-president
15:40-16:00 Open floor
16:00-17:30 Panel 5: The experience of women
with disabilities and their sexual and reproductive rights
Co-ordinator: Roser Romero, Secretary for Organisation, Spanish Confederation of
Persons with Physical and Organic Disabilities (COCEMFE)
□ Down España, Cristina
Rosell
□ NUWODU (Uganda), Beatrice
Guzu
□ Disability Rights Fund, Catalina
Devandas
□ Arab Organisation of People with
Disabilities, Jahda Abou Khalil
□ Spanish Association of Deafblind People,
Marina
Martín
17:30-18:00
Coffee break
19:00 Civic event against forced
sterilisation and coercive abortion suffered by women and girls with
disabilities, Ministry of Justice, No. 45, San Bernardo Street, 28012 Madrid
Friday 29th
June
09:00-13:30 SESSION 4: MAINSTREAMING
GENDER IN THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES
09:00-09:40 Keynote address 4:
Mainstreaming gender in the UN Convention on the rights of persons with
disabilities
Speaker: Ana
Peláez Narváez, member of the UN CRPD Committee
Presenter and moderator: María Luz Sanz,
Vice-President,
CERMI
09:40-10:00 Open floor
10:00-11:30 Panel 6: The gender
perspective in articles 7, 9, 12, 13 and 24 of the CRPD
Co-ordinator: Soledad
Murillo, CEDAW
Committee member
□ Article 7, Boys and girls with disabilities: Lucía Alonso Martínez-Laya, secondary school student (12 years old)
□ Article 9, Accessibility: Blanca Alcanda, General Director, Technosite, Fundosa Group
□ Article 12, Equal recognition before the law, and
article 13, Access to justice: Agustina Palacios, Lecturer in human rights and political law,
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina
□ Article 24, Education: Pilar
Villarino, Executive Director, CERMI
11:30-12:00
Coffee break
12:00-13:30 Panel 7: The gender
perspective in articles 25, 27, 28 and 32 of the Convention on the rights of
persons with disabilities
Co-ordinator: Carmen
de Andrés, Deputy
Director General for Programmes, Women’s Institute
□ Article 25, Health: Isabel Caballero, member of the CERMI Women’s Committee
□ Article 27, Work and employment: Pepa Torres, Managing Director, FEACEM
□ Article 28, Social protection: Rafael de Lorenzo, Secretary General, ONCE
General Council
□ Article 32, Development co-operation: Beatriz
Martínez, expert in development co-operation, CERMI
13:30-14:00 Presentation of the ‘Guide
to Gender Mainstreaming in Public Disability Policies’
Coordinator: Ignacio Tremiño, General Director for disability policy,
Ministry for Health, Social Services and Equality
Speakers: Ana Peláez Narváez, CERMI Commissioner for Gender Affairs, and Pilar Villarino, CERMI Executive Director
14:00 Closing ceremony
Speakers:
Concha Díaz, Vice-president, CERMI, and President, Spanish Confederation of Deaf People
Ana Peláez, Comissioner for gender affairs, CERMI, President of the EDF Women’s
Committee and member of the UN CRPD Committee
Ignacio Tremiño, General Director for disability policy, Ministry for Health, Social
Services and Equality
14:30 End of conference
From: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au [mailto:wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au] On Behalf Of Christina
Ryan
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 3:12 AM
To: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au
Subject: [wwda-discuss] report from Madrid 27 June 2012
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2012 3:12 AM
To: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au
Subject: [wwda-discuss] report from Madrid 27 June 2012
Report
from Madrid
Attending
International Conference on Women with Disabilities – 27 to 29 June 2012
The
conference has finally started. After weeks of anticipation and planning and
the hard work of finding a way to travel to Madrid without any funding.
Madrid
is hot, like a heatwave in Australian summer. The heat is just there all the
time so you have to work with it and embrace it. Coming from a Canberra winter
makes it easy to enjoy, but it still takes energy.
Madrid
has wonderful public transport. Every single bus is an accessible bus. The
train system has stops marked, so you must know which stop to get on or off at,
but if you know this you can manage. The trains also speak before each stop so
you know where you are and when to get off. We have embraced the bus system
with gusto and ridden into the city several times.
The
conference venue is just near our hotel, about a 5 minute trundle away. Madrid
does love its paved streets, so sometimes it’s a bit like rally driving as the
wheelchair is rattled and tossed about. Some of the footpaths are also very
narrow, so the chair barely gets through. Interesting!
The
conference program on the first day had many dignitaries listed but most of
them did not come. A couple sent videos. This disappointed a few of the
participants and I wondered how the program would go, but I realise now that
most of the other speakers are NGO experts and we are all there. (I’ve attached
the program for those who haven’t seen it. Apologies that it is only in pdf.)
We
have been using some of these techniques but there are ways that we might
continue to improve our use of the treaty committees. I don’t Australian NGOs
have been using the ESCR committee nearly as much as we could be. For example
the CRPD shadow report which is currently being endorsed, could be reframed (no
new content or process) to submit it to the ESCR. This would allow things like
the quality of work, access to social security, etc to be considered by the
committee that monitors these particular factors. The CRPD does not have the
capacity to delve heavily into these areas in the same way.
Following
this panel we heard from several NGOs including Human Rights Watch and
International Women’s’ Rights Action Watch about how they have set up processes
for using the UN mechanisms.
I
have learned that many people do not really have an idea of what they want.
Being able to frame a question succinctly is vital to getting any sort of
answer or progress. We have had a few people ramble for 10 minutes in the guise
of asking a question. Hopefully today sees less of this behaviour.
There
are participants here from all over the place, with a large contingent from the
host country as well of course. We sat near the Ugandan women, but also heard
from a Nepalese woman, and there are Italians, northern Europeans, English
women, and the IWRAW woman is from Malaysia. It can be very difficult being at
a human rights event when your own country is in the middle of taking action
which breaches human rights. We had news come through of the action of asylum
seekers. When Europe is clearly affected by austerity measures it seems
embarrassing that Australia is doing so well but still feels it can’t be
humanitarian and welcoming of those who need support.
It
was a very long day with the conference not finishing until after 8.30 pm. We
returned to the hotel for a quick dinner to find that there was a special
soccer watching event for the big match between Spain and Portugal. Noisy!
Today
is WWDA’s big day. I’ll be delivering our presentation this afternoon.
Sterilisation has been mentioned at almost every turn already so it is clearly
a major underlying concern for all women with disability human rights
activists.
We
have had a small language misunderstanding what we thought was a reception this
evening is actually a demonstration outside the Ministry. The Foreign Affairs
travel advice was very clear that the one thing you don’t do in Spain is
participate in any civil unrest or demonstrations. So we have reluctantly
decided that we should give this a miss.
Report
from Madrid
Attending
International Conference on Women with Disabilities – 27 to 29 June 2012
Day 2
- 28 June 2012
WWDA’s
big day at the conference, what a day it has been. I’ve met many wonderful
people from all over the planet, reaffirmed that our issues are the same
despite the cultural and economic differences of our many countries, and had
many photos taken with new friends.
The
day commenced with a report from Gabriela Guzman from Mexico. She is from the
Officer of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which did a report into
violence against women with disabilities late last year. I was not surprised,
but disappointed, to hear that the many issues, forms of violence, and barriers
to justice and support that Australian women with disabilities have spoken
about were experienced by women with disabilities globally. This affirmation of
our experience was heartening and gives us a stronger platform to continue to
address the issues with governments and policy makers as we have been.
Just
before lunch we heard from a panel of women from various NGOs talk about their
work and their campaigns. I was particularly inspired by Ola Abu Alghaib from
Palestine who is working on gaining better access to women’s refuges for women
with disabilities. As this is work that I have been actively engaged in back in
Canberra I was very interested to hear how things were going, and once again
all of the issues and barriers sounded the same. Clearly the lives of
Palestinian women are markedly different from Australian women, but it would
seem that the ability to use women’s services is an area of commonality.
After
lunch I delivered the WWDA paper with the added challenge of live translation
into Spanish, sign language, tactile sign language, and onto CARTT. Naturally
this means slowing down for all the interpreters so once again I had to chop
big chunks of the paper out as I went along. Always invigorating! Anyway, we
seemed to convey the key points and had a couple of very interesting questions.
One woman reminded us all that women with intellectual disabilities are not
stupid in a very powerful way. I was also asked to provide suggestions for
other countries in their fight to have sterilisation banned. I think it’s
important to use our international networks, experiences from various countries
at the UN, and also learn from legislative and other reforms. Working with our
sister organisations and women’s organisations is also vital.
Finally
today a panel of various women with disabilities talked about their
experiences, and those of their organisations, in claiming the sexual and
reproductive rights of women with disabilities. I was sitting next to Ivy from
International Women’s Rights Action Watch during this and we were amazed at
what some women had achieved. There were also some stories that made for
difficult hearing, but this adds to our body of knowledge on what can be
achieved and who to turn to for advice.
The
venue has challenging accessibility with a steep rake in an auditorium which
means that wheelchair users have no option but to park in the aisle and use the
nearest seat, plus hope the chair doesn’t roll off. Somehow we are all managing
despite this.
I
finished the day talking with some terrific people, including Beatrice and
Ochuya from Uganda, Stefan from Spain, Stig from Denmark who is also on the
CRPD committee, and Diane from Canada who is part of International Disability
Alliance. Once again, despite our many difference we have some very common
challenges, particularly around segregated schooling and living arrangements.
It’s
been an eventful second day at the conference and I was so glad to be there,
particularly as I was nearly wiped out by a stolen car speeding from the police
on the way to there this morning. Somewhat shocking but, hey, I’ve survived to
keep up the work!
Thanks
to everyone who has sent messages of support and interest, it’s great to know
my WWDA sisters and other friends are here with me.
Christina
Ryan
From: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au [mailto:wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au] On Behalf Of Christina Ryan
Sent: Saturday, 30 June 2012 7:10 AM
To: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au
Subject: [wwda-discuss] Report from Madrid day 3 29 June 2012
Sent: Saturday, 30 June 2012 7:10 AM
To: wwda-discuss@yahoogroups.com.au
Subject: [wwda-discuss] Report from Madrid day 3 29 June 2012
Report from Madrid - Day 3
Attending International Conference on
Women with Disabilities – 27 to 29 June 2012
Well after all the hard work putting
our paper together, and the last few weeks scramble trying to get here, the
conference is finally over. Madrid turned on a slightly cooler day today
reaching only 27 at midday instead of 34. With a cool breeze it’s been
delightful to be outside.
Today the conference focussed on using
the CRPD in our work. We looked at a gender analysis of various articles which
I found fascinating. This is more than cross cutting the CRPD with CEDAW, which
many of us do quite powerfully already, but rather looking at how each article
in the CRPD can be viewed through a gendered lens.
I’ve got some ideas developing already
on how we can use this at the grass roots level in disability advocacy work,
but also some other ideas on how to apply it to the work of Women with
Disabilities ACT as we argue the case for better access to public services and
spaces and work to overcome the gender disparity in access to services.
The biggest feature of the day, and
the entire conference, has been meeting so many wonderful people. Today I had
the enormous pleasure of meeting one of the leaders of the Spanish independent
living movement. With her lack of English and my complete lack of Spanish we
somehow had a conversation and will stay in touch. Fortunately with the advent
of modern technology we can rely on translation programs through the internet.
I also spent time talking to
disability human rights lawyers and to more women from around the world. My
Ugandan friends were very interested in looking at supported decision making
and as this has been the focus of a project in my own organisation I spent some
very productive time promising to share resources, and also thinking about how
to introduce SDM in a less formal more community based way. This is quite an
exciting challenge and I’m looking forward to many more conversations with them
over coming years.
Through all this we recognised the
importance of coming together as women with disabilities and considering our
common issues and approaches to our work. This is the major value of
international gatherings and I kept talking about the International Network of
Women with Disabilities to one and all. Many are already members but quite a
number are not and I’m looking forward to getting them connected.
WWDA’s paper has been very well
received and has given many others ideas on how to approach their campaigns.
This is most gratifying and illustrates the importance of coming together in
person when we can. It’s one thing to talk over email, but when you are in the
same room for several days it provides much broader opportunities.
One of the biggest challenges so many
of us face is the lack of resources. It’s particularly pertinent for the women
from a long way away, like Australia or Uganda, but also as women with
disabilities we are far more likely to be living on low incomes, or without
adequate resources that it is likely that we have no means to do our work
except very occasionally when something comes through like the support for me
from Qantas. If Governments are serious about the rights under the treaties
that they ratify there does need to be a more concerted and sustained effort to
address this chronic under resourcing.
Many of the UN treaty committee
members who have spoken at this conference have made it clear that austerity
plans and perceptions of economic difficulties do not make an excuse for
putting the rights of people on hold, or abandoning them. There is still an
obligation on countries to implement the treaties they have ratified and to
ensure that any ground gained is maintained. It was sobering to see the impact
of austerity in Spain and to realise that talk of limitations in Australia is
political rather than actual. We are incredibly privileged and capable if we
want to be. A country that can afford to choose to make major contributions to
symbolic pleasures like sport can quite readily make choices to improve the
rights of people with disabilities both at home and through aid programs.
One speaker pointed out so eloquently that the long term
change effected by inclusion and improved living circumstances for women and
people with disabilities will be more memorable and lasting than whoever wins
the big soccer match between Spain and Italy. And she’s right, the power of
diversity and the economic benefits of everyone being involved in the community
will far outlast any memories or joys created by a sports event.
Thank you to everyone who has been
watching from afar, and who has sent messages of support. A particular thank
you to the many people who make WWDA’s involvement in these events physically
possible. As a very small and under resourced organisation with growing
international demands placed upon us it is encouraging to think we can be
involved in this work despite the challenges.
Christina Ryan
WWDA gratefully acknowledges the
support of Qantas without whom this trip would be impossible. We also thank the
Australian Human Rights Commission and Advocacy for Inclusion for their
continuing contribution.
Christina Ryan
General Manager
Advocacy for Inclusion
Ph.: 61 2 6257 4005
Fax: 61 2 6257 4006
2.02 Griffin Centre
20 Genge Street
Canberra City ACT 2601
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