Event wrap up: Twenty years of the United Nations Convention on the Rights for People with Disabilities: From Commitment to Change
What does it mean to advance the rights of people with disability 20 years after the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted?
This question was at the heart of Commitment to Change: Advancing the CRPD in Australia and New Zealand. Bringing together people with disability, disability advocates, human rights experts, lawyers and researchers to reflect on progress and the work still ahead.
People With Disability Australia (PWDA), the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law and Western Sydney University School of Law partnered on this event to mark the 20th anniversary of the CRPD adoption by the United Nations in 2006.
For the disability community, the CRPD represented a fundamental shift in how disability was understood. People with disability are not recipients of charity or services, we are rights holders. Governments have obligations to uphold and protect our human rights.
Commitment to Change: Advancing the CRPD in Australia and New Zealand was created to look at how well Australia and New Zealand are living up to those commitments.
The workshop opened with an in-conversation session featuring Australian Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess and New Zealand Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker discussing Australia and New Zealand’s implementation of the CRPD, including progress, gaps and roadblocks.
This was followed by group discussions and workshop activities, including working together to develop a CRPD implementation scorecard and identifying opportunities to work together to further CRPD implementation through systemic advocacy, campaigns, research and litigation.
The discussion made clear that while there has been some progress since Australia and New Zealand committed to the CRPD. Progress has not been consistent, and many of the systemic barriers experienced by people with disability remain.
Keynote from New Zealand’s Disability Rights Commissioner
Prudence Walker, Disability Rights Commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, reflected on Aotearoa New Zealand’s experience implementing the CRPD since it was ratified there in 2008.
While there have been important developments, disabled people continue to experience poorer outcomes across areas including education, employment, housing, health, material hardship and experiences of violence and abuse.
A key theme was the importance of disabled people’s leadership.
Participation cannot simply mean asking people with disability for their views after decisions have already been made. People with disability need meaningful and ongoing opportunities to shape the laws, policies and systems that affect our lives.
This is particularly important when governments are assessing their progress against the CRPD. Monitoring and accountability must include the voices and expertise of people with disability.
Keynote from Australia’s Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Rosemary Kayess, Disability Discrimination Commissioner and a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, reflected on Australia’s implementation of the CRPD in Australia.
Australia has developed significant disability policy initiatives since ratifying the CRPD, including the Australia’s Disability Strategy and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
But the existence of policies and programs does not automatically mean that people’s rights are being realised.
The discussion highlighted ongoing challenges including inclusive education, accessibility, supported decision-making, violence and abuse, restrictive practices and Australia’s broader human rights framework.
The Disability Royal Commission was an important part of this conversation.
Its recommendations provide a roadmap for addressing the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability. However, one point highlighted throughout the event was the importance of moving beyond recommendations and commitments towards meaningful implementation and accountability.
A key theme: the right to inclusive education
Inclusive education was an area where the gap between commitment and reality was particularly clear.
Australia continues to grapple with segregation in education, despite the right of people with disability to inclusive education under the CRPD.
The discussion highlighted the need for a national roadmap towards inclusive education and the importance of having a clear, coordinated approach rather than continuing to address the issue through fragmented initiatives.
Inclusive education is not just about where students attend school. It is about access to education systems that are designed in a way that students with disability can genuinely participate, belong and learn alongside their peers.
From incremental progress to transformative change
One of the strongest themes throughout the event was the difference between incremental progress and transformative change.
Policies can change. Strategies can be published. Reviews can be completed. But these things only matter if they result in changes to people’s everyday lives.
The question, then, is not simply whether Australia has made commitments under the CRPD.
It is whether those commitments are being translated into rights in practice.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of law as a tool for change. Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act is currently under review, creating an opportunity to consider how Australia’s discrimination framework could better prevent discrimination rather than relying primarily on people with disability to make individual complaints after discrimination has occurred.
What comes next?
Twenty years after the CRPD was adopted, the Convention remains an important framework for disability rights.
But the event was not simply a celebration of the Convention’s anniversary. It was an opportunity to ask what needs to change next.
For PWDA, that means continuing to push for the implementation of disability rights through law, policy and practice – and ensuring people with disability are at the centre of that work.
The expertise of people with disability is essential to understanding whether policies are working, whether rights are being respected and what needs to change.
The message from the event was clear: commitment is only the beginning.
Twenty years on from the adoption of the CRPD, the challenge is to turn those commitments into lasting change for people with disability.
