Education
Advancing Disability Rights and Inclusion in the Caribbean: Insights from Regional Consultation
Disability rights advocates and activists discuss barriers and advancements in inclusive practices, participation, and freedom from violence for persons with disabilities in the Caribbean during a recent consultation. Representatives from governments, organizations, and regional advocates attended the session. The consultation aimed to promote understanding, identify good practices, and explore opportunities for future support from the UN. The Special Rapporteur for Disabilities for CARICOM emphasized the importance of rights such as shelter, food, healthcare, and independent living in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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Originally published by barbadostoday.bb (opens in new tab)
Disability rights advocates and activists from across the region recently sent the strong message that any decisions pertaining to their human rights, inclusion, and freedom from violence, must ensure they are seated at the table.
This was the tone as over 60 delegates from 10 Caribbean countries recently took part in a consultation, with the aim of shedding light on barriers and advances towards inclusion, participation, and freedom from violence for persons with disabilities. Participants, attending the hybrid forum at UN House in Barbados as well as online, included representatives from Governments and organisations of persons with disabilities, as well as renowned regional disability-rights advocates.
The all-day session provided a constructive environment to highlight barriers that limit persons with disabilities in the Caribbean from leading independent, productive lives, despite their multiple skills. It also served to explore steps towards true inclusion and enhanced participation, be it the establishment of quotas to ensure employment opportunities, increased access to assistive technology and devices, or systematic training of key workers in the health and social protection systems about disability rights and inclusion.
UN Resident Coordination for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Didier Trebucq said: “This consultation served to better understand the lived experience of persons with disabilities, as well as to identify good practices, examples of measures undertaken or needed and to envisage opportunities for enhanced UN’s work and support in the coming years”.
Dr Floyd Morris, Special Rapporteur for Disabilities for CARICOM and member of the Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), highlighted that there are several rights enshrined in the Convention, such as rights to shelter, food, healthcare, or independent living.
He noted that “the CPRD has strong human rights and developmental components – with emphasis on education and ensuring persons with disabilities are empowered to live their own lives without discrimination”.
In her virtual address to the forum, Zinzee Noel, a youth disability advocate from Grenada, underlined that all persons with disabilities bring a unique understanding to these gatherings.
She recognised that consultations like this are a “powerful step towards a society that believes that all people are born equal”.
Director of the National Disabilities Unit in Barbados John Hollingsworth noted that Barbados was going through reforms across key sectors to improve the support available to persons with disabilities. In addition to existing initiatives, he said that efforts were underway to provide greater access to services, including during emergencies, improve data collection and increase public sensitisation, among others.
