• The House of Representatives passed HR 2601 (the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for FY 06 and FY 07 (also known as the State Department Authorization Act), including Section 1115 which states that the United States should play a leading role in the drafting of an international convention that affirms the human rights and dignity of persons with disabilities and which is consistent with the Constitution of the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other rights enjoyed by United States citizens with disabilities. It further states that the US delegation should seek the input and advice of the Department of State's Advisory Committee on Persons with Disabilities with respect to matters considered at the Sixth Session of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee and subsequent sessions.
• The Sixth Ad Hoc Committee Meeting on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities met during the first two weeks of August. On August 2, NCD held a side-event at the United Nations to release several topical papers that give a snapshot overview of the US experience with respect to: employment; health; political participation; independent living and living in the community; transportation; education; and the accessibility of electronic and information technology. http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/alltheseries.htm NCD co-sponsored this event with Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) and Kathy Martinez moderated the panel. Speakers included Janet Lord (co-author of three of NCD’s papers), who gave an overview of all seven papers; Eric Rosenthal and Allison Hillman (of MDRI), who discussed enforcement through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and Professor Gerard Quinn of the National University of Ireland, who compared the American and European experiences. The side-event was well-attended and well-received by participants, with every member of the US delegation who was in New York in the audience. The rights to health and rehabilitation, the right to work, social security and adequate standards of living, as well as participation in political, public and cultural life and in recreation, leisure and sport, were among the articles negotiated during the current session. Ambassador MacKay, the Chair, made significant progress during the two-week long meeting, managing to hold discussion on every article on the agenda. The next meeting is scheduled for January 2006, and it will likely be three weeks long. The Chair is hoping to conduct a complete read-through of the text at that time. An advance, unedited report on the meeting can be found at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc6reporte.htm You can also visit the following link for a summary of each day’s proceedings: http://v1.dpi.org/lang-en/resources/details.php?page=286
• On August 15, the first public meeting of the State Department’s Federal Advisory Committee on People with Disabilities was held. Kathy Martinez is a member of the advisory committee, and Joan Durocher also attended.
• Since the last Board meeting, NCD staff met with delegations from China (August 15), Norway (September 13), and Japan (September 16).
• An International Watch meeting was held on September 1. The agenda included discussion of the Sixth Ad hoc Committee meeting at the United Nations and an update on the Federal Advisory Committee meeting at the State Department. The next International Watch conference call is on November 3.
