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Article 11 - Situations of risk
Background Documents | Article 11 Background
Seventh Session | Fifth
Session | Fourth
Session | Third Session
Working Group
Fourth Session
Governments
Chile
European Union
Kenya
Non-governmental organizations
Children’s Rights Alliance for England
International Disability Caucus
Landmine Survivors Network
People with Disabilities Australia
Working Meeting of NGOs for people with disabilities from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus & Moldova
Comments, proposals and amendments submitted electronically
Governments
CHILE
ARTICLE 8: RIGHT TO LIFE
We recommend including in article 8 a reference to “the various stages”
in the life of a person and support the proposal of Jordan to pay special
attention to armed conflicts and natural disasters. Therefore we propose
the following inclusive drafting:
“States Parties reaffirm the inherent right to life of persons with disabilities
in their various stages, and shall take all necessary measures to ensure
its effective enjoyment by them, in particular in situations of armed conflict
and natural disasters, in accordance with international law, human rights,
refugee and international humanitarian law”.
EUROPEAN UNION
Draft Article 8
RIGHT TO LIFE34
States Parties reaffirm the inherent right to life of all persons with disabilities,
and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment
by them.35
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KENYA
ARTICLE 8
RIGHT TO LIFE
(1) States Parties reaffirm the inherent right to life of all persons with
disabilities and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective
enjoyment by them.
(2) The right to life also includes the right for persons with disabilities
to survive and to develop on an equal basis with other persons.
(3) Disability is not a justification for the termination of life.
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Non-governmental organizations
CHILDREN's RIGHTS ALLILANCE FOR ENGLAND
Article 8
Right to life
States Parties reaffirm the inherent right to life of all persons with disabilities,
and shall (take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment
by them - delete)
undertake to amend, repeal or nullify any laws or national rules that ascribe
lower social status and less human value to infants or other persons with
disabilities. In particular, States Parties shall ensure laws affecting
the unborn foetus, and national rules governing life-extending medical support
or treatment, are based on equal respect for human life.
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INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY CAUCUS
Draft Article 8: Right to Life, Survival and Development
1. States Parties recognize and protect the inherent right to life of all
persons with disabilities, and shall take all necessary measures to ensure
its effective enjoyment by girls and boys, women and men in all stages of
life.
2. The right to life also includes the right to survive and to develop on
equal basis with others.
3. Disability is not a justification for the termination of life.
4. States Parties shall undertake effective measures to the prohibition
of compulsory abortion at the instance of the State based on the pre-natal
diagnosis of disability.
5. States Parties shall also prohibit all medical, biological and other
experiments reducing the quality of life of persons with disabilities, or
seeking to remedy a disability against an individual’s will.
6. In case of natural and humanitarian disasters, including wars and armed
conflicts, states parties shall secure safety of girls and boys, women and
men with disabilities on equal basis with others, taking into account each
individual's needs.
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LANDMINES SURVIVORS NETWORK
DRAFT ARTICLE 8 COMMENTS
Draft Article 8 recognizes the right to life in its specific application
to people with disabilities. The formulation of Draft Article 8 received
strong support from a number of delegations to the Ad Hoc Committee. At
the same time, various drafting suggestions were put forward, in addition
to proposals for adding additional text. It is essential that a draft article
covering the right to life be included in this Convention given that it
is a fundamental human right frequently denied to women, men and children
with disabilities.
The recognition of the right to life is commonplace in specialized Conventions.
(Cf. CRC, Article 38(4); Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of
Prisoners of War, Article 3(1)(a)) A number of general international Conventions
likewise include a provision on the right to life. (Cf. UDHR, Article 3;
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, Article 1; ICCPR,
Article 6; American Convention on Human Rights, Article 4; European Convention
on Human Rights, Article 2; African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights,
Article 4) Inclusion of a provision on the right to life received broad
support from States during the third session of the Ad Hoc Committee. (Cf.
Daily Summaries, Vol. 4, #2 and Vol. 4, #5, available at: http://www.worldenable.net/rights/adhoc3meetsumm02.htm;
http://www.worldenable.net/rights/adhoc3meetsumm03.htm)
Draft Article 8(1): Argentina proposed the deletion of the word “reaffirm”
and its replacement with the term “recognize.” This alternative term is
preferable. The term “reaffirm” is more typically used in non-binding declarations.
The term “recognise” is typically found in Conventions and is the term used
in Article 38 of the CRC.
Draft Article 8(2): India supported the inclusion of a second sub-paragraph
that derives from Article 8 on the right to life in the CRC. The inclusion
of this language is important for its inclusion of concepts that are highly
relevant to ensuring the human rights of people with disabilities – survival
and development. Significantly, Article 23, the provision on children with
disabilities in the CRC, requires assistance to be provided in a manner
conducive to maximizing “social integration and individual development.”
People with disabilities are too often subjected to violence and exploitation,
concepts that directly link to survival. Other provisions throughout the
Convention draft text are equally relevant to facilitating survival and
development, such as the right to education, accessibility, and employment.
The concept of achieving the maximum survival and development of people
with disabilities in society runs throughout the draft Convention text,
therefore, it should be explicitly integrated into the Convention framework.
Finally, ensuring that the provision on right to life also includes the
concepts of survival and development underscores that the disability issues
are regarded as channels of development and inclusion, not public welfare
and charity.
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PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY AUSTRALIA
Article 8: Right to Life
We strongly support the inclusion of the Right to Life in this convention
however, we wish to highlight that the current formulation of the right
is essentially the same as that set out in Article 6 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is suggested that the right should
be more directly applied to the specific risks to life faced by persons
with disability.
The lives of people with disability are often regarded as inferior to those
without disability. As a result, medical and social interventions are often
denied or restricted to people with disability, or given secondary priority.
In the absence of these interventions people with disability sometimes cannot
survive or develop to their full potential. There is general acceptance
of the fact that people with disability are subject to greater levels of
violence and abuse leading to higher mortality. In light of this it is suggested
that States must accept a special obligation to protect the lives of people
with disability.
The expression of the Right to Life in the Convention on the Rights of the
Child includes a right to survival and development. We strongly suggest
that a similar right be incorporated into this convention with respect to
people with disability.
Pre-natal genetic testing to detect chromosome variations that may result
in impairment is most often used for the purposes of supporting selective
termination on the basis of that impairment. In this respect, it should
be noted that the Human Genome Project, whatever the benefits it may offer
people with disability, also represents a fundamental eugenic threat to
the continued existence of many impairment groups. For this reason, we believe
that this convention should attempt to erect an ethical constraint on the
use of genetic information for the purpose of preventing the lives of children
with disability.
This obviously presents a difficult ethical challenge, not least because
of its potential impact on the choice of women in relation to pregnancy.
However, it might be possible to address this issue more indirectly. For
example, much of the information that is made available to parents at the
time of genetic testing and immediately following the birth of a child with
disability is overwhelmingly negative and inaccurate, and induces parents
to opt for termination of pregnancy or withdrawal of life sustaining treatments.
It is possible to impose an obligation on States to ensure that prospective
parents of a child with disability receive positive and realistic orientation
to their child and its future life. This may reduce the chances that parents
will opt for termination of pregnancy.
The ability to detect impairment prior to birth brings with it grave risks
that both States and private actors – such as insurers – may deny or restrict
social assistance to children with disability and parents where parents
make a conscious decision to proceed with a pregnancy where disability has
been detected prior to birth. This convention must eliminate any risk that
social assistance will be denied or limited to parents or children with
disability in circumstances where a genetic variation was detected prior
to birth.
Taking into account these proposals, the article might be redrafted as follows:
1. States Parties reaffirm the inherent right to life of all persons
with disability, and shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection
and enjoyment of this right.
2. States Parties to this convention shall ensure to the maximum extent
possible the survival and development of the person with disability.
3. States Parties to this convention shall take immediate and effective
measures to discourage termination of pregnancy on the basis of actual,
suspected, imputed, assumed or possible future disability. This shall include:
(a) Establishing ethical standards and guidelines for genetic information and counselling services;
(b) Ensuring that information and support provided to parents during the pre-natal period provides a positive orientation to the child with disability;
(c) Ensuring the availability of all necessary post natal information and support to parents and the child with disability;
(d) Prohibiting State and non-State actors from limiting or refusing social assistance on equal terms with others on the basis of a parental decision to bear a child with disability.
WORKING MEETING OF NGOs FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY FROM UKRAINE,
RUSSIA, BELARUS & MOLDOVA
Article 8
Right to life
The following statement should be added:
Future parents have got the right to give birth to a future baby in the case
they are informed about his/her disability. Prospective disability of the child
can not be the reason for cancelling all types of statutory support to the child
and the family.
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