National Council on Disability
Federal Advisory Committee International Watch
Minutes
May 6, 2004
12:00 noon Eastern Time

Attendance
Kathleen Martinez, Chairperson
Jeff Rosen, NCD Staff
Joan Durocher, NCD Staff
Cappie Morgan
Tina Singleton
Arlene Kanter
Janet Lord
Josephina Duran
Janet Allem
Eric Rosenthal
Mark Engman
Karen Heinicke-Motsch
Victor Pineda

NCD's meeting with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)(Joan Durocher)

Ms. Durocher stated that on March 29th, she, Mr. Rosen, Ms. Martinez and Mr. Rosenthal met with Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of USAID. This meeting was requested to follow up on recommendations made to USAID in NCD’s Foreign Policy and Disability Report. Ms. Durocher stated that NCD discussed the recommendations and the resulting legislation passed over the last few months directed at USAID. While Mr. Natsios was reserved about making any commitments regarding the recommendations, he did agree to include disability inclusive language in all of USAID’s Requests for Proposals, and Requests for Applications.

Ms. Martinez stated that the Council is following up with a letter thanking him for the meeting and inviting him to share the new RFP and RFA language with NCD to get feedback. She added that he did not commit to much more, explaining that there are so many special interest groups that USAID must respond to and that 92% of USAID funds have been earmarked.

Mr. Rosenthal stated that he felt that there was some hostility at the beginning of the meeting. He stated that Mr. Natsios felt that the legislation would restrict USAID and he was opposed to setting aside funds for specific purposes. Mr. Rosenthal added that he spoke with Ms. Giliberti in Senator Tom Harkin's Office and she stated that they have spoken with AID and the State Department and she felt that they have been making positive steps in the right direction.
Mr. Rosenthal stated that the Administrator indicated that to impact large bureaucracies, structural changes have to be made. He told Natsios that including language in RFPs that shows how contractors and recipients of grants that says they have to demonstrate how their programs have to be accessible to people with disabilities would be one way to move forward. Mr. Natsios gave meeting participants a copy of a booklet on the programs USAID has going in Iraq which was impressive on the surface. He was amazed at the different disability related programs that already exist in Iraq. However, the programs that are considered disability programs are not really. They are programs that affect people with disabilities and many are not progressive, a lot of them appeared very charity-model oriented, re-building hospitals oriented, and re-building institutions oriented.

Ms. Morgan stated that Ms. Allem (at USAID) has felt that the disability policy team within USAID has very little energy and to get a better understanding of what we all like to accomplish we should assist Ms. Allem with that team to nurture some voices that we feel need to be furthered within the USAID.

Ms. Allem responded that the disability policy team which formed six years ago is not active. She stated that the individuals that were very active is the Policy Bureau and the people from the Leahy War Victims Fund. She stated that now there is a new team that is being responsive to what is in presently in the law such as developing construction guidelines and also being responsive in Afghanistan to AID’s disability policy.

USAID meeting at NCD on construction access standards (Jeff Rosen)

Mr. Rosen reported that they provided meeting space to meet with USAID and the Access Board. He stated that they talked about the requirements that would make the construction in Iraq successful and how it will be implemented. Other people at the meeting included David Capozzi (Access Board) and Lloyd Fineberg (Policy Bureau at USAID). Mr. Rosen stated that there was a good discussion on the challenges present in determining which standards could apply to make them accessible. The United States is trying to determine whether the architectural standards of the country should apply or some other international standards should apply, or if ADAAG should come into play.

Ms. Allem stated there is a follow-up meeting at 1:00 p.m today at USAID to look at Robert Horvath’s revision of the standards. He has re-drafted the standards and the policy bureau will look at them. She stated that the meeting brought about helpful comments from the disability community.

8th International Children's Congress in Stavanger, Norway (Cappie Morgan)

Ms. Morgan stated that the Department of Health & Human Services created a team several years ago comprised of government agencies in the United States as well as from different countries including Canada, Argentina, and specifically Norway. Others are international organizations such as UNICEF, OECD, and FOCIL. The groups have been planning and putting together a meeting somewhere in the world, where approximately 400 individuals get together and look at children with disabilities and issues that affect them. The eighth meeting is to be held in Norway in mid-June. She stated that the meeting will be held a week before the Rehabilitation International conference in Oslo. Ms. Morgan stated that the next meeting will be held in the United States in 2006. There will be 15 people attending from the United States and the others that comprise the 400 will be coming from different countries. She stated that Ms. Allem, who sits on the steering committee, has been very helpful in getting missions from around the world and in the Washington region involved. They are trying to get disciplinary teams to come from Armenia where we have people from NGO's and the missions have been good in supporting these teams by preparing and debriefing them among the years.

Input from the International Watch membership regarding future NCD foreign policy work (International Watch Membership discussion)

Ms. Durocher asked International Watch members about whether an analysis discussing the implications for US domestic law if an international disability treaty is passed, and vice versa—the implications of US domestic law on an international treaty would be a helpful contribution on the treaty work, considering the US position on the treaty.

Ms. Janet Lord stated that there is no convention text therefore we can not identify the impact of the convention on US domestic law because we do not know the legal obligations a convention will ultimately have. Also, given the U.S. position on this convention and the statement of this Administration, it has no intention of signing or ratifying this convention. She stated that very few countries around the world have comprehensive legislation and this convention would open doors toward law reform in a host of countries. The convention is going to be much broader than law. She stated that there is certainly value in sharing with other countries and it is even contingent with the Administration's position and an accessible tool of sharing US experience with our law.

Mr. Rosenthal agreed with Ms. Lord and stated that an analysis would be premature. He stated that if there are limited resources for the Council to work with in the international area, that there is an urgent need to continue to focus on the foreign assistance work that was started and to keep the progress going would be essential. Mr. Rosenthal stated that Senator Harkin's staff need to know that the disability community cares about this and show an effort to reach out to domestic disability groups to pressure Congress and the Administration to make sure the foreign assistance legislation happens. NCD has an important role in reaching out to domestic groups and getting them further engaged. Mr. Rosenthal stated that there can be a tremendous alliance created between the work of international development groups and disability groups. NCD could play an important role in follow-up in the foreign assistance area.

Mr. Rosenthal stated that Senator Harkin continues to support NCD’s recommendation of a Fund for Inclusion and disability fellows at USAID, which is a program based upon a model of the women's rights program which picked ten people with disabilities to go abroad and work in USAID missions and help them develop the technical expertise in the field to do disability work effectively. He strongly encourages the Council to use their limited international resources and put them as much as possible into convening and bring together development and disability organizations and work together over the course of the year.

Dr. Andersson inquired whether or not the Council has made sure that international organizations have access to NCD’s White Paper on the Convention. He stated that he asked the World Federation of the Deaf if they have received various documents and they stated that they did not. He said that the Landmine Survivors Network provided a very good document and a very good source for different organizations.

Ms. Lord responded that she thinks that Dr. Andersson is referring to the recent analysis Landmine Survivors Network published on the convention. She is sure that WFD is included on the distribution list but will follow up to make sure that analysis is appropriately disseminated.

Ms. Kanter informed the membership that Syracuse University is pulling together a website that will link all these different sources of information together. It will include a searchable database.

Ms. Heinicke-Motsch stated that she thought the website linkage is a great idea and would be beneficial for people who want to do a comprehensive search on international law. This would be a great resource and the Council should be looking at what they can do pro-actively to support what is beginning to move and go forward so that international aid is inclusive of people with disabilities.

Mr. Rosenthal clarified that he did not want to give the impression that it is an either/or proposition with respect to the Convention work vs. the foreign assistance work. He stated that as we work to get domestic disability activists and disability organizations more involved in development work that constituency would be a force in the United States for supporting a convention. He stated if the Council had a proactive effort to work more with domestic disability groups and getting involved in development issues, they could also at the same time work on building support for the convention. Mr. Rosenthal suggested having presentations to major meetings of disability organizations to keep the collaboration going on a regular basis. He stated that he is a board member of the United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD) and is pushing them to play a more active role as well. Therefore, if NCD and USICD both worked together and disseminated information by reaching out through conferences that are occurring and presenting the material to those conferences and possibly getting a working group going that would meet regularly would be of tremendous value.

Mr. Pineda stated that the University of California at Berkeley will be conducting a disability and development conference in the Fall, probably late October, early November. He stated that Ms. Judy Heumann has been invited as the keynote speaker.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m. eastern time.