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Summary: Afternoon session of day 1 of the Middle East and North Africa consultation on children and the UN disability Convention, held from 29 - 31st October 2007, in Sana'a, Yemen.
Gerison Lansdown, an international child rights consultant who was involved in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, explained childrenâs involvement in the Convention and held a question and answer session with the young participants. --------------------------- The Convention on the Rights of the Child was born in 1989, but the rights of many children with disabilities are still not being respected. I have listened to children with disabilities from El Salvador, South Africa, Nepal, and Romania. And they all said similar things: even though we have a right to education, we still cannot go to school; and even though we have a right to be protected from violence, we still get hurt, and our parents love our other brothers and sisters more. So, what can we do about this? People with disabilities from all over the world said we need a new Convention to make governments respect our rights. So after a lot of meetings, we now have a Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities. When they started writing the Convention, only adults were involved, so Save the Children decided that we should ask children what they thought. Six children and young people went to New York where governments were discussing the treaty: two came from the UK, two from Bangladesh and two from China. They had to find a way to understand each other as they spoke different languages, some were from middle-class families, others from the slums, and others from rural areas. And yet, within two to three hours of meeting, they all agreed that they had the same problems. They all felt they had a problem with being able to participate in the society around them, they all experienced being excluded in school, they all felt that children with disabilities faced more violence than other children, and all felt that parents needed more support to understand what disability was about. They set out their stories to tell people about these problems. But, when the Chinese government met the two children from China, they said no, you cannot tell that story in the UN, these are very important people from governments. As the Chinese government was denying the children the right to express their views, the children decided that if one of them couldnât speak, none of them would speak. Finally the Chinese government gave in and agreed to let them speak. The children put together statements from a consultation held in Bangladesh about what it felt like to grow up with a disability. They read out a statement which said âWhen I was young, I often cried because I was lonely and had no friends. Would you put up your hand if you have ever felt like that?â A few people put their hands up. They pointed to someone with their hand up and asked what it felt like, and people began to talk about what it felt like to be excluded as a child and not having any friends. Many people were in tears, and many said that it had made them remember the sadness that they had felt as a child. So having children there at the meeting made a big difference. Now we have this new Convention which says governments must make sure children have the right to play and that ever child with a disability can go to school, and they must do things to stop negative attitudes towards people with disabilities. In Yemen, your government has signed this Convention which means they are thinking about it. The next stage is called âratifyingâ, this means they promise to make new laws and make things change so that your rights begin to be respected. You can argue with government, and persuade to get the legislation as strong as possible. --------------------------- Questions and answer session with the children Waleed, boy from Taiz, Yemen: Has America signed the Convention? GL: No, they were there and part of the negotiations, but have not signed. Muna, girl from Hajjah, Yemen: Why didnât all countries discuss the Convention, did the ones that werenât there think that disability is not an important issue? GL: At the beginning many people did not think that disability was an important issue. By the end, 150 governments were taking part in the negotiations. The Arab region was well represented, the least represented region was South Asia. Another problem was that governments had different views on whether children should be included in the text of the Convention. The countries in the European Union always speaks with one voice and they wanted nothing in the Convention on children, so we had a big task persuading them to change their mind about this. Osama, boy from Yemen: What about children with learning difficulties? GL: This Convention is for children with mental illness, sensory impairments, etc. â for children with all kinds of disabilities. Muna: My friend has a disability with her hands and noone accepts her in school. Just one person. They say they cannot accept her because she cannot write. What do you think about this? GL: Itâs very difficult to comment without knowing the situation, but the Convention says that all schools must adapt to accept children with disabilities. So no child should be refused in education because they have a disability. But there will always be private schools which can choose which children they take. When Yemen ratifies the Convention, they will have to get rid of all discrimination against children. We also have to change attitudes. This is where you can all play a part, by challenging discrimination and demonstrating that disability shouldnât stop you from doing anything.