CRINMAIL 1293
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The ParaCRINlympics
Coming first in line does not always mean being better. And this year's Summer Paralympic Games proved just that. Even though they were the second instalment of the world's biggest sports event, its predecessor was just the warm-up for the main tournament, which brought us some of the most inspiring and impressive wins, records and achievements of the 2012 Games. Now that we find ourselves in its aftermath, at CRIN we hope the Paralympics will inspire renewed political focus on the rights of persons with disabilities around the world, not to mention wider ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. To celebrate the occasion, we have chosen to reflect on the rights of children with disabilities, drawing on the successes and failures of States both on and off the track, and highlighting where athletes have outperformed their own countries. Welcome to the ParaCRINlympics!
A question of funding?
The United States surprised us all by finishing sixth on the medals board, after coming on top at the Olympics. This called into question whether North American Paralympians are receiving the same amount of financial support as Olympic athletes. Yet while funding may indeed be one of the reasons behind its medal ranking, sixth place can also mean that progress is taking place elsewhere. As more countries take part in the Paralympics and invest more money in their national sports systems, previously dominant nations, such as the US, are now facing tougher competition. And this is most visible on the medals table.
Ukraine is probably the best example, after it finished in fourth position with 32 golds – two less than Great Britain. If only the same could be said for the country's performance off the track. The glaring lack of State support for families who have children with special needs means that many cannot afford adequate health care and rehabilitation, often resulting in children's institutionalisation into State care, as the CRC Committee has pointed out in the Universal Periodic Review.
One up on the Olympics
Other countries, however, are shining both on and off the track, with several performing better in the Paralympics than in the Olympics. In the case of Nigeria, it won no medals in the Olympics, but pocketed 12 (six of them gold) in the Paralympics. Rwanda left the Olympics empty handed, but bagged itself a well deserved bronze at the Paralympics. And after sitting it out on the Olympic medals board, Bosnia and Herzegovina won gold in sitting volleyball. All three countries also came on top of the CRIN leader board for ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (henceforth, the Disabilities Convention) and its Optional Protocol with no reservations!
While Mexico's six Paralympic golds far exceeded its single Olympic gold, a 2010 study found that children with disabilities in psychiatric hospitals, institutions, care facilities and shelters were kept in permanent restraints, including being tied to chairs, tied up with bedsheets and kept in cribs.
Reservations that are best reserved
Iran surprisingly finished in 11th position with ten golds. But if it were up to CRIN, the State would come in at a well-deserved bottom place in respect to the rights of persons with disabilities, for issuing the broadest, most indeterminate and vaguest reservation to the Disabilities Convention by “not consider[ing] itself bound by any provisions of the Convention, which may be incompatible with its applicable rules.”
Upon ratifying the Convention, El Salvador issued a similarly vague reservation, whereby it is willing to comply with its provisions so long as none of them “prejudice or violate the provisions of any of the precepts, principles and norms enshrined in the Constitution”, calling into question the degree of commitment assumed by the State towards civilians with disabilities.
Meanwhile Malaysia, which only won two Paralympic medals, also exempts itself from article 15 of the Disabilities Convention on the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, thus undermining the application of a fundamental principle of the Convention. Upon its ratification, the Malaysian State also declared itself unbound by article 18 on the right to liberty of movement and nationality, which sets out that “children with disabilities shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by their parents.”
Just off the finishing line
Despite finishing second on the medals table with 36 golds, Russia is falling behind off the track, as it is guilty of not having ratified the Disabilities Convention, which would not go amiss given the CRC Committee's concern over the provision of equal educational opportunities for children with disabilities in the country, including by abolishing the practice of “corrective” and “auxiliary schools”.
Considering the small size of the Netherlands, it secured its presence on the medals board with an impressive tenth position. But the State continues to fail to make an appearance on the ratification table of the Disabilities Convention.
The much larger United States, too, has also not yet taken the big step to ratify the Disabilities Convention. Notably, a 2009 study revealed that schoolchildren with disabilities are up to twice as likely as students without disabilities to be “paddled” (beaten with a wooden paddle).
Several Caribbean States are also notable for their glaring absence on the ratifications table, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, despite all having become signatories back in 2007. The race is now on as to which country will take the lead in the near future.
The ParaCRINlympics were done in the spirit of the Summer Paralympic Games. The event signalled an advocacy opportunity in which CRIN has sought to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, including children, their well-being, their inclusion in society and their empowerment, in particular through the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
To find out if your country has passed the starting line by signing the Convention, but has yet to cross the finishing line by ratifying it, click here.
And to make sure your country has also ratified the Convention's Optional Protocol for a complaints mechanism, which allows individuals or groups who claim their rights under the Convention have been violated, click here.
See you at the next ParaCRINlympics in 2016!
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NEWS IN BRIEF
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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS WIKI: Spotlight on Kenya
In this week's Children's Rights Wiki we look at the persistent violations of children's rights in Kenya:
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Female genital mutilation
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Early marriage and varied and uncertain minimum age for marriage
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Child labour
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Trafficking and prostitution of children
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Violence against children
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Corporal punishment
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Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of children
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Low minimum age of criminal responsibility
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Inadequate juvenile justice system, particularly with regards to the detention of children
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Children sentenced to death
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Malnutrition
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High infant and child mortality
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Children living on the streets
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Internally displaced children
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Inadequate education provision
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Inadequate alternative care
For more information, click here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Child marriage: Forced and child marriage - a global problem
Organisation: Anti-Slavery International et al.
Date: 14 September 2012
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
More details here.
Juvenile justice: How can the HRC further improve the protection of human rights of children deprived of their liberty?
Organisation: Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice et al.
Date: 18 September 2012
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
More details here.
Call for papers: 23rd International Forum for Child Welfare
Organisation: International Forum for Child Welfare
Event date: 26-29 November 2012
Submission deadline: 25 September 2012
Location: Naples, Italy
More details here.
Eurochild: Annual conference 2012
Organisation: Eurochild
Date: 24-26 October 2012
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
More details here.
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EMPLOYMENT
Plan International: Consultancy on benefits of birth registration
Application deadline: 16 September 2012
More details here.
The Last Word
"We should dramatically change our attitude towards people with special needs. Having a disability does not mean being DIS-abled. A great part of solving the social problems faced by people with disabilities...depends on the attitude of ordinary members of our society. The main condition of this process is the acceptance by the social consciousness of the idea of equal rights and opportunities for all people and [an] attitude change towards people with special needs."
- Anna Sinepolskaya, Ukranian investigative journalist
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