International Watch Members (Present)
Lex Frieden, NCD Chair
Kathleen Martinez, IW Chairperson and NCD Board Member
Yerker Andersson
Eric Rosenthal
Arlene Kanter
Tina Singleton
Judi Chamberlin
Silvia Yee
Robert Shuckohosee
Don Galloway
Janet Lord

NCD Staff (Present)
Joan Durocher

NCD Consultants (Present)
Joelle Balfe

Guests (Present)
Rosemary Ciotti
Erica Anderson
Janet Allem
Cappie Morgan
Mark Engman

Call to Order

Ms. Durocher called the meeting to order at 12:00 noon.

Amend/Approve Agenda

Kathy Martinez welcomed participants and asked for an amendment to the agenda to allow time for Yerker Andersson to discuss IDA's recent paper on the international Convention. The agenda was approved.

Foreign Assistance Update

Joan Durocher reminded the committee that NCD will be publishing a report examining legislative options for improving disability inclusion in US foreign assistance and foreign policy. Eric Rosenthal and Arlene Kanter, co-authors of the report, will provide a progress update on the project.

Kathy Martinez emphasized that we would discuss the paper as well as a roll-out strategy.

Eric Rosenthal reported that he and Arlene Kanter had submitted a draft to NCD and that the draft was subject to NCD's standard external review process. He explained that the paper examines the 1991 GAO study that showed that foreign assistance programs had failed to include a disability component, reviews USAID self assessments, and also the1996 NCD foreign policy study. The paper is essentially a seven year follow up to that NCD report and finds that little progress has been made within USAID and the State Department on this front. Therefore, the paper looks at new legislative options for amending the foreign assistance act as well as how existing civil rights laws might be used to reinforce applicability of the Rehabilitation Act extraterritorially. The authors had reviewed several different programs and movements focused on including specific populations to see what could be learned from their experiences and to inform the paper's recommendations. These included the torture victims act, the Percy amendment, efforts undertaken to integrate women in development, etc. Certain recommendations of the paper, such as establishing a pot of money for missions to integrate disability, were modeled after existing programs from other movements. Drawing on the experience of the women's movement, the paper recognizes the importance of mainstreaming people with disabilities into all programs and examines strategies for building disability into the planning process. It also includes recommendations for the establishment of an office of disability within USAID and a "fund for inclusion" to assist disability organizations from recipient countries to take actions to promote inclusion.

Arlene Kanter noted also that disability has not been well integrated in the human rights organizational framework and consciousness, in large part due to lack of documentation of exclusion and its effects. State Department human rights reports should include disability conditions within countries, but there needs to be a legislative mandate to ensure that this becomes a focus of the reports. The paper also looks at the presumption against extraterritorial application of Section 504, for example, and examines relatively new case law that might help to counter that presumption.

Eric Rosenthal added that the paper is not an empirical study. Although it does try to look at concrete examples, it is principally a policy analysis and a series of practical recommendations. It does, however, call for a GAO study to increase empirical documentation of the issues.

Committee members discussed some examples of how US funds were currently being used in post conflict reconstruction in ways that were not disability inclusive. Eric Rosenthal encouraged participants to send those examples to him for incorporation in the paper.

Kathy Martinez asked for ideas from the group regarding strategies for getting the paper known on the Hill. The concept of attaching a roll-out event to another large event was discussed. Kathy informed the committee that Barbara Pope, Assistant Secretary in the Office of Civil Rights at the State Department had met with the NCD Board to discuss several matters and had suggested that the "Secretary's Forum" (a "brown bag" lunch program) was a good way to educate people within the State Department about specific issues. It was recognized, however, that the State Department was only minimally concerned with USAID policies and might not be the most valuable target for raising awareness of these issues. It was decided that continued discussion on a roll-out strategy would be necessary and participants were invited to communicate their ideas to NCD.

International Convention Update

Joelle Balfe reported that the congressional working group, originally convened by Senator Harkin's office but now including staff from Congressman Lantos' and Langevin's offices, was working to finalize a concurrent resolution expressing the support of congress for the convention. When the language has been finalized, efforts to get support from both sides of the aisle will begin. It will also be important for the disability community to communicate its support for the resolution. International Watch will be kept informed of the progress of the resolution. The working group will be meeting again on March 17.

An interagency consultation was convened by the State Department to discuss the convention. NCD participated in the meeting, during which the Department of Justice expressed extreme reservations about the development of a specialized treaty on disability. Shortly after that meeting, the UN sent to all member States a questionnaire regarding the scope and content of a future treaty. NCD, as well as other agencies, was asked to provide input on the questionnaire. The final response of the US to the UN was still pending.

NCD is also working to have one or more Board members included on the US delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee meeting in June. That process is underway, although it is hard to predict whether NCD will be successful in obtaining a seat on the delegation.

NCD partnered with the United States International Council on Disability (USICD) and Yoshiko Dart to convene a meeting of the disability community at the request of Disabled Peoples International (DPI) whose new Chairperson, Venus Ilagan, visited DC on February 13. The World Bank generously provided space and disability accommodations for the event. USICD expressed interest in convening a working group of the disability community for the purpose of organizing support for the convention. NCD staff will share with International Watch members any information it receives about that working group.

Yerker Andersson reported that the International Disability Alliance (IDA) had met in Sweden and released a paper that had resulted from the meeting. It is very important the United States be involved in the convention process, as it has rich experience to offer. Yerker suggested to Joan Durocher that Kicki Nordstrom, IDA Chair, be invited to be a guest speaker on the next International Watch call. Joan Durocher asked for the Committee's input on having Ms. Nordstrom speak on the next call. Ms. Durocher added that Ms. Nordstrom had met with the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and had written an article about the High Commissioner's perspective on the treaty. Janet Lord commented that International Watch has excellent communications with Rehabilitation International and Disabled Peoples' International, which are member organizations of IDA. She believed that we already had access to the information and resources necessary to understand IDA's position on the convention and that it might be better to focus on communicating with the IDA members we have already established relationships with. Lex Frieden agreed that this approach was a good idea.

Judy Chamberlin commented that she had been at the recent IDA meeting in Stockholm, with the World Federation of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (an IDA member) and liked the paper IDA had produced at that meeting. She encouraged International Watch members to read that paper.

Janet Allem asked for the Committee's assistance in identifying disability organizations from, or doing work in, Iraq. This will be important to help promote a disability perspective in reconstruction efforts. Lex Frieden responded that Rehabilitation International is most active in that region of the world, with organizations in Lebanon, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. He could help in efforts to link those groups with reconstruction work.

Kathy Martinez thanked participants. She reminded the Committee that the next conference call would take place May 1, 2003 at 12:00 pm Eastern time.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.