Launch of the Civil Society Shadow Report

Wednesday 29 August, 2012

Graeme Innes AM
Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.

Australia became a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008. The rest of the world refers to it by the unappealing acronym of CRPD, or the Disability Convention, but I like to refer to it as the Disco. It's catchy, and it creates a great image for me of people with disability dancing, and being to go anywhere they want - although I haven't been inside a disco for many a long year.

The DisCo has now been ratified by 118 countries. Its development involved the highest level of participation by representatives of civil society (or organisations of people with disabilities) of any human rights convention, or indeed any other United Nations process, in history.  And that's very relevant to today's launch. I note that Australian disability organisations punched well above their weight in their contribution to the process- and I can confirm that because, whilst we worked together most of the time- on some occasions they - quite appropriately - punched me.

I still remember the day the Disco was signed by Australia. We were not the first to sign, unlike Jamaica which sprinted in true Usain Bolt style, to ratify on day one, while the rest of us were still marching into the stadium. It was 30 March 2007. At 1.40 am on a Saturday morning Sydney time- Friday New York time. I was having a few glasses of wine, watching Australia line up with 80 other signing countries at the UN in New York. I watched via the internet. Yes, it's a bit of a tragic life I lead. But rest assured I wasn't the only one — the then director of the disability rights unit at the Commission revealed to me the following Monday morning that he had done just the same thing — although with a few gin and tonics instead. Clearly we all need to get out more.

It's not possible to give a good overview of the DisCo in the 10 minutes I have, so here is a very quick comical run down, in the style of the Crazy Warehouse Guy from the Chaser.

We've got civil rights! Political rights!
Economic, social, cultural rights!
Rights to be progressively implemented — to the Maximum of Available Resources!
Rights restated! Rights translated! Applied to disability contexts, in easy practical terms!
National monitoring and implementation!
International monitoring! And co-operation!
Disability discrimination is never to be repeated!
And inequality has to go — out the door!

So let me come to this Shadow Report.  Not surprisingly, it paints a grimmer picture than the report of the government on its compliance made in 2010. I would describe the Australian government Initial Report as a good first try rather than as the last word in reporting. In saying that I do not mean any disrespect to my colleagues in Government who prepared it. It's a bit like saying a student is tracking well against curriculum objectives; has handed in a good first term paper; shows reasonable awareness of areas where substantial improvement is needed; has made good progress in working with others; and has good prospects of performing well at the end of the year.

This shadow report tells a different story. The authors have provided you with the detail.  But overall it paints a picture of poverty and disadvantage, unemployment, use of our prison systems as accommodation options, an acceptance of infringement of people's bodily integrity through the forced sterilisation of women and girls with disability, and a general lack of respect. To give just two personal examples in the last few days- how can a rail system think it’s appropriate if everyone else on the train knows where they are and I don't, and how can a university think it’s appropriate to launch their disability action plan in a venue where people with mobility disability have to come in through the back door, and get permission to do so.

Shadow reports such as this play a significant role in providing recommendations to the convention expert committee. And the chair of that committee - our own Professor Ron McCallum - tells me that people with a disability have played a vital role in the dialogue which occurs. Human rights monitoring committees welcome these kinds of shadow reports. They are an additional source of information when such committees make their recommendations to government on actions they should consider for implementation of treaty commitments.

The DisCo is not a trophy to be taken out every few years, waved proudly, and then put back on the shelf. It is a set of tools that we must use to realize the protection and promotion of the human rights of people with disability. And this shadow report provides us with some guidelines as to how we might use those tools.

I was proud to be part of the Australian government delegation, working co-operatively with organisations of people with disability towards the development of the DisCo. And I look forward to working collectively with NGO's and in partnership with Governments at all levels, to make the changes occur which will advance the rights set out in the Convention. I congratulate all of you who have worked hard and contributed to this document, which will play a major role in advancing those rights. It's critically important that you have done this work, because there should be nothing about us without us.  I am very happy to launch this shadow Report.