The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has recently published Concluding observations and List of issues in relation to Croatia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland adopted at its 73rd Session and 72nd Pre-Sessional Working Group.
The different concluding observations and list of issues reflect commendable efforts by the CESCR Committee to mainstream economic, social, and cultural rights of persons with disabilities. For instance, in Lithuania, the Committee recommended “[E]nsure that the amount of pension benefits for persons with disabilities adequately to the covers both basic income security and disability-related costs". On list of issues, all the five countries received questions from the CESCR Committee requesting additional information especially with regards to equality and non-discrimination, right to work, right to social security, right to education and cultural rights of persons with disabilities. On cultural rights for instance, the Committee requests Kenya to “[p]rovide information on the measures taken by the State party, including public funding, to ensure the realization of the right to participate in and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, particularly for girls and women, persons with disabilities and disadvantaged and marginalized groups”. Similarly, the CESCR Committee requests Rwanda to “[p]lease provide information on the measures taken to ensure that sports facilities and competitions are accessible to persons with disabilities, especially children and youth”.
For 73rd Session and 72nd Pre-Sessional Working Group, IDA supported and collaborated closely with umbrella, coalition, and networks of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) including the Kenya Women with Disabilities Network, National Union of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities in Rwanda, Disabled Women in Africa, Human Rights for Girls with Disabilities, Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi and Lithuania Disability Rights Forum. IDA also collaborated with Disability Rights Fund and held a joint workshop with DRF Grantees in Malawi. Through their alternative reports and oral advocacy, the OPDs contributed to a significant increase in number of issues addressed to the State by the Committee and a broader scope of rights to be addressed.
In Kenya, there are 25 references of persons with disabilities in relation to equality of women and men, right to work, right to social security, right to physical and mental health and right to education and cultural. This is an increase from 2015 list of issues where there were only 5 explicit references of persons with disabilities. It was worth noting that organizations of persons with disabilities participation was missing in 2015 for instance, no OPD submitted alternative report. The significant change demonstrates the impact of effective and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations and their opinions being considered in Treaty Bodies’ processes.
All the documents related to 73rd Session are available here.
All the documents related to 72nd Pre-Sessional Working Group including alternative reports by organizations of persons with disabilities are available here.
