Ratification of the Convention on Rights of the Disabled will require actions that no one thought of

Actually, it’s not a fact that ratification won’t be delayed for years. Organizations of persons with disabilities are concerned about probable problems with Convention’s integration into our reality.

Convention on Rights of the Disabled has been adopted in 2006; starting from 2008 the document is open for signing. Aliaksandr Lukashenka signed the Decree No.401 about joining the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities on September 24; four days after Belarus signed the document itself in New York.

“Indeed, it is very significant fact for our country; but for the Convention to become a valid document it has to be ratified – become an internal document and acquire judicial power”, - noted Siarhei Drazdouski, the coordinator of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, at the meeting of organizations that unite people with disabilities, civic activists, and mass media representatives.

Meanwhile, for many Belarusans it remains unclear what exactly changes our country’s joining the Convention for the Belarusan society. “The Convention doesn’t bring any new law, new benefits or privileges for the disabled. Persons with disabilities in fact get an endorsement of those rights and freedoms that they already have, that are voiced and that each of the countries that signed the World Declaration of Human Rights has obliged to fulfill. The other thing is that the Convention concretely defines and objectifies these rights and freedoms from the position of disability. And half of the well-known rights and freedoms in the Convention sound somewhat different; they are written in a way that is principal for the persons with disabilities”, - explains Siarhei Drazdouski. As an example he quotes the Article 19 of the Convention that tells about the independent lifestyle of persons with disabilities: “this right isn’t basically noted in other documents, while its realization has crucial importance for disabilities”. The crucial importance lies in the fact that “this article allows to switch from the paternalistic approach to the one that is based on human rights; this approach is, in fact, the innovation that the Convention carries”.

Until now, notes Siarhei Drazdouski, “medical attitude towards disability has prevailed in our country; or, if we exaggerate, a disabled person is an ill person”. “Even though Belarusan norms declare somewhat different, the essence remains like this. Whereas the Convention brings new approach and understanding that disability is an obstacle in fulfilling person’s rights. And that is discrimination; while the Convention brings strong antidiscriminatory message”, - he said. It means that, for example, technical means of rehabilitation are guaranteed by the state; the state buys and gives them out. In this sense a person with disability is not a consumer, but a user to some extent. If we apply subjective approach to this situation, it will look in the following way: the money of the society gathered by the state is given to a person with disability, and this person – either with the help of the state or without it – makes a decision of how to use this money, what technical means of rehabilitation to use; this person is an owner of this facility.

Siarhei Drazdouski draws attention to the fact that Belarus has been getting ready to sign the Convention for 8 years; during this time a number of researches have been carried out, including the study into the state of the persons with disabilities, legal analysis on the presence of contradictions between the national legislation and the Convention. “The Parliament can ratify the Convention as soon as the next session. Technically it requires no more than 6 months. We believe that eight years of preparations to sign the Convention should have already formed all the documents required for ratification and create understanding of what actions will be needed. If not, what the officials were busy with during all these years? We cannot agree on some more years for ratification”, - stressed Siarhei Drazdouski.

According to his words, Belarus doesn’t consider the possibility of joining the Optional Protocol to the Convention that “brings no additional rights to the persons with disabilities but describes mutual relations between the state and the UN Committee for Human Rights”. Whereas this document provides the Convention with the functions of the firm international law.

Joining the Optional Protocol Belarus takes upon itself a number of tougher obligations to fulfill the Convention, including the stricter accounting before the Committee; thus, the Committee can send commissars to the country to study the situation and citizens can make private appeal that a citizen if he or she didn’t secure his or her right re the Convention.

Besides, says Drazdouski, the fulfillment of the Convention norms presupposes “changes in the country that we should consider”.

“Second obligation within the frames of the Convention that should be introduced quickly and in accordance with the signed Paris Principles; it is the formation of the independent body in the country that would be responsible for the fulfillment, coordination, and control over the fulfillment of the Convention norms. We don’t have and we’ve never had anything similar to that in our country. As a rule, such functions are laid on the institute of ombudsman. But Belarus doesn’t even have an ombudsman”, - said the expert.

As Uladzimir Patapenka, the head of the “Belarusan society of the disabled” public organization noted, it is important that “the civil society, including the persons with disabilities, got included into the work of this independent body”. “A new independent body should be created in the country; otherwise the Convention might not start working. I call for minimizing the mistakes, for more often meetings, and for discussing every issue that concerns the problem of implementation of the Convention norms”, - marked Uladzimir Patapenka.

Belarus also doesn’t have an institute that would be dealing with the problem of discrimination, “but at least we have neighboring countries where we can study the sphere of the antidiscrimination law”.

“Having signed the Convention, Belarus has obliged not to create any documents that would contradict the norms of the Convention. But Belarus is now elaborating the state programme that will be defining the policy of the state in this sphere for the next five years. But we know nothing about its contents”, - noted Siarhei Drazdouski.