National Council on Disability
International Watch Federal Advisory Committee
Conference Call
March 4, 2004
12:00p.m.-1:00 p.m. EST

Attendance
Kathleen Martinez, Chairperson
Jeff Rosen
Joan Durocher
Cappie Morgan
Maria Reina
Rosemary Ciotti
Eric Rosenthal
Mary Dolan
Alice Demichelis
Judy Chamberlain
Janet Allem
Jerry Mindes
Yerker Andersson
Tina Minkowitz
Judy Heumann
Susan Siegel

Ms. Durocher stated that she would like to amend the agenda to include Mary Dolan to discuss Resolution 169.

Agenda approved.

Ms. Martinez asked Ms. Durocher to give an update on the State Department Country Reports. Ms. Durocher reported that the 2003 Country Reports were released on February 25 and that she had sent them out to the International Watch membership. Ms. Durocher stated that they appear to be better than last year's Reports, but there is still room for improvement.

Ms. Durocher stated that the Council has been working with Senator Harkin's staff to put together better disability questions for inclusion in the Country Reports. A letter will be sent to Lorne Craner at the State Department with several new questions that NCD hopes will improve the 2004 Reports.

Ms. Durocher reported that the House International Relations Committee will be holding a hearing on the Reports on March 10th and Lorne Craner will be giving testimony.

Ms. Martinez commented that she had seen some of the questions and thought that they were rather in-depth.

Mr. Rosenthal reported that he has been working with the State Department to try and get them to focus specifically on getting people out of institutions. He stated that he fears that their general approach is to ask disability groups what the human rights abuses are; and with that approach they will not get to the individuals who are cut off from society and being locked away in institutions. Mr. Rosenthal stated that he has sent a detailed memorandum to the Department of State suggesting that in addition to the broad questions suggested by the Council, that they have a specially focused effort to ensure that someone in every country visits orphanages, psychiatric facilities, and other facilities that have people with an array of disabilities and to make sure that those abuses are included in the Country Reports as well.

Ms. Durocher stated that she randomly compared and contrasted the approach to disability in the Reports with respect to different countries. With some countries it would state, " There is no discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, or in the provision of other state services. However, there were no laws that mandate access to buildings." And that's all. For other countries, though, like Sierra Leone, there's more extensive comments. So, its very hard to assess how comprehensive these reports are in a broad sense.

Ms. Martinez asked Ms. Reina to give an update on the International Disability Rights Monitoring Project being conducted by the Center on International Rehabilitation.

Ms. Reina reported that there is a network of 24 countries in the Americas and several countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In the Asia-Pacific Region, work is being done with DPI. In the Americas, CIR is working with individuals and members of grassroots NGOs. She stated that the Americas Regional Report should be completed by August and the published version of the Asia-Pacific report will be released in December. CIR's research is based on a questionnaire consisting of 90 demographic questions. She stated that they try to cover issues regarding civil and political rights, inclusion issues including communication, education, housing, employment, economic, and cultural rights. There is also a section on disability awareness and the actions of NGOs as well as how the government is organized, and whether they have a commission or committee on disabilities. She stated that the researchers are applying the questionnaire, analyzing the document, interviewing people, and collecting data.

Ms. Martinez commented that the Project sounds very extensive and far-reaching and it looks like they will be covering a broad array of issues.

Ms. Durocher asked Ms. Reina what kind of response or feedback CIR has received from the initial compendium published.

Ms. Reina answered that in the first compendium, they had only preliminary reports for El Salvador and Nicaragua but used it to test their experimental survey instrument for other countries. She stated that there is an overview of some countries regarding disability laws and other laws that protect people with disabilities. She stated CIR is ready to publish the country reports of each country of the Americas except for Cuba, French Guyana and Haiti because it was very difficult to find researchers for those countries.

Mr. Mindes inquired about how closely the indicators used track the international convention on human, civil, social and economic rights, the rights against arbitrary detention, etc.

Ms. Reina stated that the questionnaire is based on different international treaties and they try to cover the rights that are expressed in such treaties. She added that there is to be a meeting with the researchers in Nicaragua in September to review the entire process.

Dr. Andersson stated that the Council office has a book on European disability laws, and stated that some of the laws are very strict, and some are very flexible. He stated that this would be a good guide for comparison.

Ms. Martinez then asked Ms. Dolan to report on House Resolution 169.

Ms. Dolan reported that House Resolution 169 is pending. The Bill calls for the sense of the Congress for support of the proposed convention on disability rights and for the Administration to send a team of leaders, including people within the disability leadership, to work cooperatively with the Ad Hoc Committee which is working at the United Nations under the leadership of Ambassador Gallegos of Ecuador to be full partners in the development of this convention.

Ms. Dolan stated that Resolution 169 is co-sponsored in the House by Congressman Tom Lantos, who is the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, as well as Congressman Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. She stated that the Resolution received an unanimous vote from the International Relations Committee several months ago, but is awaiting scheduling for a vote on the floor by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Ms. Dolan stated that Congressman DeLay has not scheduled the vote and rumors are that he is not going to do so. Ms. Dolan stated that they have been trying for two months to bring this to his attention and encourage its scheduling, or at least support the Resolution. She reported that letters from disability organizations have been submitted to his office, specifically mentioning AAPD, PVA and NOD.

Ms. Dolan also reported that the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, co-chaired by Mr. Frank Wolfe and Congressman Tom Lantos are conducting a briefing on the Convention on March 30th.

Ms. Martinez asked Ms. Minkowitz to substitute for Janet Lord, who is absent, and give an update on the Convention Working Group.

Ms. Minkowitz reported that the European Union played a very obstructive role and did not support the concept of international cooperation; Canada is also playing a very legalistic role and weighing in with negative points of view; the United States sent a representative from HHS who spoke about reasonable accommodation, and played a very positive role. Ms. Minkowitz stated that the working group had regular sessions scheduled from 8:00 until 10:00, during lunchtime and throughout the evening. Ms. Minkowitz reported that the Mexican Ambassador is playing a lead role in the process and says that he expects the Ad Hoc Committee in May will have a read-through of the text and everyone will make comments including the NGOs and make sure that the 12 NGOs that participated in the working group are ensured a chance to speak as opposed to just speaking if there is time. She stated that the Ambassador was anticipating that there could be final agreement on some articles of the text that are not controversial and the fourth Ad Hoc Committee meeting in August/September will be where the controversial issues will be addressed.

Ms. Minkowitz asked if anyone on the call had any ideas about getting funding for international disability organizations from the government for its work, especially in relation to supporting Working Group members from developing countries?

Ms. Allem stated that USAID is working to try and get people with disabilities included in everything that AID does and occasionally that involves flying people to different conferences. She stated that a vast amount of USAID money is in the missions and the money has to be spent on what is related to particular missions. Several missions are being responsive to flying people within their countries to Congresses, like the International Children's Congress. Ms. Allem stated that there are no funds to fly people from the United States to the Congresses, but there are funds in developing countries to send people to different conferences.

The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m. eastern time.