Tirza Leibowitz, Survivor Corps’ Director of Rights Advocacy, gives an update on the progress of Cartagena Summit.
It’s a pleasure to have met up with everyone — Kim Hoa, Shireen,
Albert, Zeljko, Ramiz, Jesus, Bekele, Jairo, Riley, (Nate joining this
evening) — and to work together as a team.
Highlights from today’s events:
1. Our side event on Towards Survivorship — From Victim to Citizen —
facilitated by Jairo, was a smashing success: Full house, very
interesting discussion. Jairo did a wonderful job facilitating. Riley,
Shireen, Kim Hoa, and Nerina were all helping behind the scenes.
Participants were left with a desire for more. The subject is
pertinent to victim assistance discussed here at the Conference, and
beyond. Zeljko was one of the panelists, together with two of our own.
2. The ICBL just made the closing remarks in the plenary discussion,
on victim assistance. We were notable authors of this intervention —
which won applause at the end, and more importantly, pressed forth
three clear messages to states parties, about the need to support and
implement the Cartagena Action Plan, continue substantial victim
assistance funding and earmark it so its allocation to victim
assistance programs is assured, and to use the CRPD as the human
rights framework for implementing victim assistance including signing,
ratifying and implementing it.
3. In general, the CRPD has been very prominent in most of the states’
interventions, and in the ICBL one. We can attribute this development
very much to our efforts over the years and in the last few months
leading up to the Summit.
A few more highlights from the last few days:
4. Our updated “Connecting the Dots” booklet about the synergies
between the three treaties is grabbed (Nerina and I between us carried
over 500 booklets…). In general, we have a nice booth right at the
entrance to the plenary, with our brochures and booklets.
5. Jesus was invited by Handicap International to present at a side
event today, about good practices in social and economic inclusion.
Jesus also gave a presentation in Saturday’s orientation session to
all the ICBL campaigners, introducing newcomers in an inspirational
way to the 12-year process and results achieved.
6. Zeljko was asked by the BiH delegation to co-present BiH’s
government victim assistance intervention. We were very proud of him
when he unflinchingly explained where BiH was falling short from a
rights-based approach to victim assistance and how to remedy that,
even as he was speaking on behalf of the delegation. In his part of
the intervention, Zeljko also gave a nice demonstration of what a
rights-based approach means, for example, how the four years people
are asked to wear out their prosthetics affects their right to health,
and how gaps in assistance in being included in the workforce relates
to the right to work.
7. On Friday, during a day-long victim assistance workshop for ICBL
campaigners and victim assistance focal points, Nerina presented a
session about synergies among the three treaties (Mine Ban, Clusters,
CRPD) and showed participants how our Connecting the Dots booklet can
help understanding the synergies and advocating for it. There are
copies of the booklet in boxes opposite the 4200 office printer.
8. Ramiz presented on advocacy efforts in action using the BiH
example, with a focus on peer support and employment. Ramiz was also
asked by the ICBL to coordinate the activities of South East Europe
regional group of campaigners during this Summit.
9. The Quad Rugby event is highlighted in a booth of its own here at
the Convention Center, with a great poster and great partners, in
particular Juan Pablo Salazar from Fundacion Arcangeles. People are
signing up (Juan Pablo wants to assess numbers for transportation
purposes) and it looks like it will be a very nice event.
Upcoming we have meetings with the Austrian and US delegations, led by
Ken. Ken will also be presenting at a sought-after side event on
Wednesday, which is the talk of town — on US policy with regard to
the treaty. We will be meeting with the US delegation the day before.
As you may have heard, the US is sending out very mixed and
contradictory messages, first raising expectations that it will
declare its intention to join the treaty, then, a few days ago, that
it has already conducted a review and will continue with the Bush
policy of not joining, and two days later doing a double-take and
saying it is in the midst of an ongoing review and no decision yet. We
will employ all our means here at Cartagena to get on the case (though
the participation is relatively low-level).
December 01, 2009, 12:00pm Comments
