Sixth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 17-19 July 2013
Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stipulates that “The States Parties shall meet regularly in a Conference of States Parties in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the present Convention.” Since 2008, five sessions of the Conference of States Parties have been held at United Nations Headquarters, New York.
The theme of the 6th Session is Ensuring adequate standard of living: empowerment and participation of persons with disabilities within the framework of the CRPD
The sub-themes are:
- Economic empowerment through inclusive social protection and poverty reduction strategies
- Disability-inclusive development in national, regional and international processes
- Community-based rehabilitation and habilitation for inclusive society.
The Commission invites interested organisations to submit proposals that meet the criteria of the Commission’s international participation program
- Networking/capacity/capability building events that will enable Disability Peak Organisations (DPOs) and Disability Advocacy Organisations (DAOs) to promote the work of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and/or meet Australia’s obligations under the Convention.
- Networking/capacity/capability building events that will enable DPOs and DAOs to promote the priorities under the National Disability Strategy (NDS)—Key Policy Area 2: Rights protection, justice and legislation.
Proposals should
- Disclose any other sources of funding available to them
- Indicate need and justification for funding including any particular needs related to location and impact of disability on travel costs
- Address each of the criteria identified in the Commission’s published template for nominations.
Information on how to apply for funding is available at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability-international-participation-funding-program-faq
Proposals are requested by COB Friday 7th June, 2013.
This week the Minister for Workplace Relations, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, announced that the Australian Government will amend the Fair Work Act to give people with disability and carers the right to request flexible working arrangements. Currently the right to request flexible working arrangements is limited to parents with responsibility for a child under school age or a child with disability aged under 18.
The change will extend the right to request flexible work arrangements to include:
- employees with disability;
- employees who are parents, or have responsibility for care of a child of school age;
- workers with other caring responsibilities;
- mature age employees; and
- workers experiencing family violence and workers providing personal care, support and assistance to a member of their immediate family or member of their household because they are experiencing family violence.
For many years the Commission has stressed the vital importance of a flexible workplace to the successful recruitment and retention of all employees, including employees with disability, and consistently advocated for these changes.
The Commission congratulates the Government on this announcement and looks forward to the introduction of legislation giving people with disability, carers, mature age workers and workers experiencing family violence the right to request flexible working arrangements.
You can read more here
The Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS) is proposing the Australian government start up a National Advocacy Voice for young people with a disability. This could be an important way for young people with a disability to have a Voice to the Australian government and Australian community.
YDAS would like to hear how important a National Advocacy Voice would be for you and what it might look like. You can do this by completing a short survey that will only take about ten minutes to do.
To complete the survey, click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S3FL8QS
YDAS would really like your ideas to include in the proposal. The more governments know that this is something that young people with a disability want for themselves, the more likely they are to set up the National Advocacy Voice.
It would be great if you could complete this survey by 12th February 2013. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Bridie Hudson on nydc@yacvic.org.au or 9267 3766.
Thank you for your support and ideas for a National Advocacy Voice for young people with a disability.
Twenty years ago, life for millions of Australians got easier. The then Deputy Prime Minister in the Keating government, Brian Howe, introduced an Act that would, for the first time at a national level , make it unlawful for people with disability to be discriminated against. The genesis of change was the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), which commenced operation on 1 March 1993.
Twenty Years: Twenty Stories marks the Disability Discrimination Act’s twentieth birthday with twenty inspiring stories on film. This is a partnership project between the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Sydney Community Foundation.
Here is a sneak peek of this website: http://humanrights.gov.au/twentystories/index.html
Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC CVO Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia will officially Launch ANZAD in Australia on 12 Feb 2013.
Australian and New Zealand Assistance Dogs, Inc (ANZAD) is an incorporated umbrella body of non-profit organisations, which train and place Assistance Dogs in Australia and New Zealand. ANZAD is the regional chapter of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) and therefore aligned to ADI’s mission and aims to:
• Establish and promote standards of excellence in all areas of Assistance Dog acquisition, training and partnership
• Facilitate communication and learning among member organizations,
• Educate the public to the benefits of Assistance Dogs and ADI membership
ANZAD aims to regulate and heighten the standards of training, placement and working relationships of Assistance Dogs, while improving the education of staff , volunteers and all stake holders across Australia and New Zealand.
Find out more about or contact ANZAD through www.anzad.org
A summit bringing together world leaders, policy makers and researchers to examine the urgent needs of people with disability across the world took place in South Korea yesterday.
The first of its kind focusing solely on people with intellectual disabilities, the Global Development Summit in PyeongChang aims to raise the profile of people with intellectual disability and ensure that people with disability share in the benefits of development and have their voices heard.
The Summit explored obstacles that prevent people with intellectual disabilities from being included and accepted as part of the larger global development agenda. It will help provide a way forward for people with intellectual disability to be included in development.
Source: Media release from the Office of Senator Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers
The cases were brought by or on behalf of two intellectually disabled men, Mr Michael Nojin and Mr Gordon Prior. Mr Nojin and Mr Prior each worked in an Australian Disability Enterprise(ADE). The proceedings concern complaints that, by using a particular tool to measure their work contribution, and ultimately to assess their wages, the ADEs in which Mr Nojin and Mr Prior worked discriminated against them in their employment. Read the full case here: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2012/192.html
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee preliminary review of the initial Australian report (15 – 19 April 2013) and Consideration of the initial report of Australia concerning implementation of the Convention (September 2013)
For more information click here
Minister Shorten seeks proposals on ways to boost employment participation for people with disability, discussion paper seeking public views on how best to achieve reform. How to provide a submission.
To ensure that the most vulnerable Australians are able to find a job, earn a wage, enjoy the dignity of work and prosper from satisfying and rewarding careers, a consultation process has been launched to seek proposals on how best to boost employment participation for people with disability.
The Government would like to hear from all interested parties, including:
- people with disability, their families, carers and community representatives
- employers and employer representatives
- current Employment Service Providers
- state and local governments
- unions and other employee representative group
You can read more here
On 26 November 2012 the Senate referred the above matter to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committees for inquiry and report with particular reference to a list of issues including:
(a) the drivers behind the past 30 years of growth in the Australian imprisonment rate;
(b) the economic and social costs of imprisonment;
(c) the over-representation of disadvantaged groups within Australian prisons, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people experiencing mental ill-health, cognitive disability and hearing loss;
(d) the cost, availability and effectiveness of alternatives to imprisonment, including prevention, early intervention, diversionary and rehabilitation measures.
The closing date for submissions is 15 March 2013 . The reporting date is 16 May 2013.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee’s inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
The Committee Secretariat can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au
For more information, please go to: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=legcon_ctte/justice_reinvestment/info.htm
