ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES FOURTH MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE OEA/Ser.L/XXIV.3.1 ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION CEDDIS/doc.10 (VI-O/12) AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 30 January 2012 November 27 to 29, 2012 Original: Spanish Santiago, Chile

FINAL REPORT

CONTENTS I. Background ...............................................................................................................................1 II. Participants................................................................................................................................2

A. Members of CEDDIS...................................................................................................2

B. Special Guests ..............................................................................................................4 III. Proceedings ...............................................................................................................................4

A. Inaugural Session .........................................................................................................4

B. Working Sessions.........................................................................................................6

First session...............................................................................................................................6

a. Presentation of progress made in drafting the preliminary diagnostic assessment of the global situation in the region regarding the exercise of legal capacity by persons with disabilities, with a view to developing an instruction manual on supports and safeguards............................................................6

b. Presentation of progress made in promoting the rights of persons with

disabilities to exercise legal capacity, from the viewpoint of civil society. .................7

c. Presentation of progress made in promoting the right of persons with disabilities to exercise their legal capacity, in the framework of the United Nations. ............................................................................................................9

Second session ..........................................................................................................................9

Presentation of successful experiences – part I: Misión Solidaria Manuela

Espejo (Ecuador)..........................................................................................................9

Third session ...........................................................................................................................11

a. Summary of the conclusions of the report of the CEDDIS Working Group to evaluate the situation of the Technical Secretariat for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, SEDISCAP, presented at the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, in April 2012..............................................................................................11

b. Presentation on the role of SEDISCAP and the principal results obtained

during its Director’s tenure ........................................................................................12

c. Deliberations of the plenary .......................................................................................14

Fourth session..........................................................................................................................16

a. Presentation of successful experiences – Part II: Inclusive national

programs (Chile) ........................................................................................................16

a.1 Various national policies...............................................................................16 a.2 Teletón Chile Foundation..............................................................................16 a.3 TV WEB: Accessible information for the national deaf

community ....................................................................................................17 a.4 Sello Chile Inclusivo .....................................................................................17

b. Presentation of successful experiences – Part III: Programa Vivir sem

limite/ (Brazil) ............................................................................................................18

Visit to the facilities of Teletón Chile .....................................................................................19

Fifth session ............................................................................................................................19

a. Adoption by the Committee of the recommendation to strengthen SEDISCAP.................................................................................................................19

b. Review of proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the

Committee ..................................................................................................................20

c. Financial situation ......................................................................................................20

Sixth session............................................................................................................................22

a. Considerations on the second CIADDIS-PAD report................................................22

a.1 Background ...................................................................................................22 a.2 Process of evaluation of reports ...................................................................23 a.3 Difficulties expressed ....................................................................................25

b. Presentation of the Latin American and Caribbean Inter-University

Network on Disability and Human Rights .................................................................26

Seventh session .......................................................................................................................27

a. Activities planned for 2013........................................................................................27

b. Site of future meetings ...............................................................................................27

c. Adoption of resolutions..............................................................................................28

Dialogue with civil society......................................................................................................28

Closing session........................................................................................................................29

IV. Recapitulation of Agreements Adopted at the Working Sessions of the Fourth

Meeting of CEDDIS................................................................................................................29 Appendices...........................................................................................................................................31

I. BACKGROUND The Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter “CIADDIS”) was adopted on June 7, 1999, by the OAS General Assembly at its twenty-ninth regular session, held in Guatemala City, and entered into force on September 14, 2001. To date, 21 OAS member states have signed the Convention and 18 have ratified it. To follow up on the commitments undertaken in the Convention, Article VI thereof provides for the establishment of a Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter “CEDDIS”), composed of one representative appointed by each state party and two alternates. As of the date of this report, the Committee has held the following meetings: Regular meetings:

• First Meeting of the Committee: February 28 to March 1, 2007. Panama City, Panama.

• Second Meeting of the Committee: July 28 to August 1, 2008. Brasilia, Brazil.

• Third Meeting of the Committee: April 26 and 27, 2010. San Salvador, El Salvador.

• Fourth Meeting of the Committee: November 27 to 29, 2012. Santiago, Chile.

Special meetings:

• First Special Meeting: May 4 and 5, 2011. San Salvador, El Salvador.

• Second Special Meeting: April 25 and 26, 2012. Lima, Peru. The Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS was convened by the Committee’s Chair on October 23, 2012, for the purpose of considering, among other matters, the progress made and difficulties encountered by the states in the presentation of the second report on compliance with the CIADDIS, the presentation of progress made in drawing up an instruction manual on supports and safeguards for the exercise of legal capacity by persons with disabilities, the adoption of a decision on the conclusions of the Working Group to make recommendations on the sustainability of the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (SEDISCAP), the report on the activities carried out by the Committee in 2012, and the sharing of successful inclusive experiences among national representatives. Moreover, in keeping with operative paragraph 4 of resolution AG/RES. 2596 (XL-O/10), time was allowed for civil society participation, to enable its representatives to provide the Committee with any information they deemed pertinent on the measures taken by the states parties to the Convention to implement it.

- 2 -

II. PARTICIPANTS A. MEMBERS OF CEDDIS 1. Argentina Pablo Rosales (principal member). Attorney, independent expert 2. Brazil

Fernando Antonio Ribeiro (first alternate). International Advisor to the Secretariat for Human Rights of the Office of the President of the Republic

3. Chile

María Ximena Rivas (principal member), First Vice Chair of CEDDIS. National Director of the National Service for Disabilities, SENADIS

Oscar Mellado (first alternate). Assistant Director of the National Service for Disabilities, SENADIS

Elia Puentes (second alternate). Legal Advisor for the National Service for Disabilities, SENADIS

4. Costa Rica

Erick Hess Araya (principal member). Executive Secretary of the National Council for Rehabilitation and Special Education, CNREE

Francisco Rodríguez Gutiérrez (first alternate). Representative of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities to the Board of Directors of the National Council for Rehabilitation and Special Education, CNREE

Francisco Villalta Montes (second alternate). Representative of Mothers and Fathers of Persons with Disabilities to the Board of Directors of the National Council for Rehabilitation and Special Education, CNREE

5. Dominican Republic

Magino Corporán Lorenzo (principal member). Director of the National Council for Disabilities, CONADIS

6. Ecuador

Lenín Moreno Garcés (principal member), Chair of CEDDIS. Honorable Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador and Chair of the National Council for Disabilities, CONADIS

- 3 -

Xavier Torres (first alternate). Vice Chair of the National Council for Disabilities, CONADIS, and Coordinator of National Federations of and for Disabilities of Ecuador

Giovanny Rivadeneira (second alternate). Disabilities Ombudsman of the National Council for Disabilities, CONADIS

Support staff of the delegation of Ecuador

Andrés Michelena (support staff of the delegation of Ecuador). Secretary of Communications of the Office of the Vice President of the Republic

Elizabeth Laines (support staff of the delegation of Ecuador). Technical Expert for the National Council for Disabilities, CONADIS

7. Mexico

Oscar Esparza Vargas (special accredited participant). Minister, Head of Chancery of the Embassy of Mexico to Chile

8. Panama

Ramón Alemán (principal member), Second Vice Chair of CEDDIS. Director of the National Secretariat for Disabilities, SENADIS

Oris Salazar de Carrizo (second alternate). Advisor to the Office of the Director General of the National Secretariat for Disabilities, SENADIS

9. Paraguay

Luz Bella González (principal member). Minister, Executive Secretary of the National Secretariat for the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, SENADIS

Belén Morra (second alternate). Head of the Department of Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

10. Uruguay

María José Bagnato (principal member). Director of the National Program on Disabilities of the Ministry of Social Development, PRONADIS.

Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS Mercedes Carrillo, Department of Social Development and Employment of the OAS.

- 4 -

B. SPECIAL GUESTS

Xenia de Vergara. Director of the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

María Soledad Cisternas Reyes. Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Pamela Molina. Project Manager, Human Rights, Governance, and Democracy Initiative. Trust for the Americas

Milton González, National Medical Director. Teletón Chile.

III. PROCEEDINGS A. INAUGURAL SESSION The inaugural session of the Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS took place in the Salón de Honor of the former National Congress of the Republic of Chile. Present were the national delegates to the committee, representatives of the Organization of American States, and government officials of the host country, among them the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich; the Minister of Labor, Bruno Baranda; Senator Juan Pablo Letelier; and Congressman Enrique Accorsi, Chair of the Anti-poverty Committee. Also in attendance were civil society representatives. Present on the dais were Lenín Moreno, Honorable Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador and Chair of CEDDIS; Joaquín Lavín, Minister of Social Development of Chile; and María Ximena Rivas, Director of the National Secretariat for Disabilities of Chile, SENADIS, and First Vice Chair of CEDDIS. In his opening remarks, the Chair of CEDDIS, Lenín Moreno, expressed his pleasure at the holding of the Fourth Meeting and said that the elimination of all forms of discrimination was the most important cause championed by persons with disabilities. He noted that the Office of the Vice President of Ecuador had convened the First Ibero-American Conference for Workplace Inclusion of People with Disabilities for October 2012 in the Galapagos Islands, with the participation of the Ibero-American General Secretariat and the Ibero-American Social Security Organization. It was on that occasion, with the Ibero-American Ministers of Labor present, that the initiative arose to propose to the XXII Ibero-American Summit, held in Cádiz on November 16 and 17, 2012, that 2013 be declared “Ibero-American Year for Workplace Inclusion of Persons with Disability,” a proposal subsequently endorsed by the Heads of State attending the Summit. The Chair of CEDDIS indicated that it was a great challenge to ensure that said declaration did not remain a dead letter but was crystallized into public policy in all the Ibero-American countries, which would require training and the appropriate targeting of potential and skills. In that connection, he suggested that in the days ahead the delegates make proposals for action on workplace inclusion to be promoted or implemented in 2013, so as to make the wishes of the Ibero-American countries a reality. Mr. Moreno also said that, on the occasion of Labor Day, commemorated in several countries of the

- 5 -

Hemisphere on May 1, a forum might be convened in Ecuador on best practices for the workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities. The Chair of CEDDIS recognized the importance of the items on the agenda that had brought the participants together and said that he looked forward to a successful meeting for everyone. The Honorable Minister of Social Development, Joaquín Lavín, then took the floor to welcome all delegations on behalf of the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera, and added that it was a great honor for Chile to host that meeting, in view of the opportunity it afforded Chile to share what it was doing as a country and to learn from successful experiences in other countries. He commented that Chile was working hard to eliminate all forms of discrimination and briefly referred, as an example of that struggle, to various national initiatives, such as the one recently launched by SENADIS Chile called “Sello Chile Inclusivo” [Chilean Seal of Inclusiveness], which was a recognition given to public and private entities that took positive measures to include persons with disabilities. He also referred to the previous month’s municipal elections at which visually impaired persons had had access to ballots in Braille, which enabled them to vote with complete independence, and also to the national university entrance exam for which necessary technology was being applied to enable students with disabilities to participate on an equal footing with others. Minister Lavín acknowledged that much remained to be done to eliminate discrimination and that efforts must also focus on bringing about a cultural change throughout society regarding persons with disabilities. In conclusion, he thanked all participants for their presence and wished them a very successful meeting. Lastly, the Director of SENADIS Chile and First Vice Chair of CEDDIS, María Ximena Rivas, took the floor. She expressed thanks to all of the Committee delegations, government officials from the legislative and judicial branches, military authorities, and civil society representatives for their presence. The Vice Chair said that, while the international community had made great strides toward the respect, freedom, and autonomy of persons with disabilities, much remained to be done. For that reason, regional gatherings like the CEDDIS meetings were excellent opportunities to develop relations and share experiences among national delegations in order to develop inclusive forums. María Ximena Rivas emphasized that the Committee’s definitions of how best to measure its progress in meeting its commitments was not only an administrative issue but also a matter that could have an enormous impact on the quality of life of persons with disabilities, since measurement instruments served as a guide for the states to improve their institutional structure, policies, and actions in that area. The Vice Chair of CEDDIS added that the time had come to get beyond a handout mentality, which perpetuated the dependence of persons with disabilities and to move toward a profound cultural change that required an awareness of the issue, intelligent incentives, and effective access for persons with disabilities to tools that afforded them equal opportunity with others. In conclusion, Mrs. Rivas invited those present to reflect and dream about policy design in the noblest sense, in order to build a new reality on the basis of such aspirations. The inaugural session ended with a cultural show featuring the Danzarmonía group, in which various international dances were represented.

- 6 -

B. WORKING SESSIONS The working sessions of the Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS were held in the San Cristóbal Room of the Sheraton Santiago Hotel, in accordance with the following agenda. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012 The working sessions on Tuesday were chaired by the Chair of the Committee, Lenín Moreno, who welcomed those present and introduced the delegates from Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Uruguay, who had recently joined CEDDIS. Then the Secretary of CEDDIS, Mercedes Carrillo, read out the agenda items and explained the working methodology. She pointed out that changes would likely be made to the agenda regarding the sessions originally scheduled for evaluation of the CIADDIS compliance reports, for the reasons explained in section “a.3/Sixth session” of this report. First session

a. Presentation of progress made in drafting the preliminary diagnostic assessment of

the global situation in the region regarding the exercise of legal capacity by persons

with disabilities, with a view to developing an instruction manual on supports and

safeguards.

As indicated by Pablo Rosales, the principal member delegate from Argentina to CEDDIS and special rapporteur appointed for this project, a questionnaire had been distributed to the permanent missions of the OAS member states on February 1, 2012. It was intended for government officials in the judicial and legislative branches of government and for ministries, councils, or secretariats for social inclusion, social development, or infrastructure, or national offices whose organizational mission or role was related to disability policies, exclusively or as an advisory body of the states (CONADIS or related entities), in order to collect the data needed to conduct a diagnostic assessment and draw up a preliminary regional proposal that would shed light on the principal difficulties encountered by those countries of the Americas that had ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in implementing Article 12 thereof on the exercise of legal capacity (determining whether said obstacles were legislative, institutional, cultural, or financial in nature). That had been done as a result of the new paradigm change resulting from the entry into force of the United Nations Convention in May 2008, whereby the exercise and enjoyment of rights characteristic of the protection model of most Latin American civil codes (which generally consisted of declarations of legal incompetence and the imposition of guardianships for persons with intellectual or mental disabilities) had to be replaced by a new system based on decision-making with supports and safeguards.

According to Pablo Rosales, as of the date of the meeting, 13 countries had responded to the questionnaire: Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, and Guyana. Rapporteur Rosales said he would process the information contained in the completed questionnaires in order to identify the main difficulties encountered by the countries of the region in guaranteeing that persons with disabilities might fully exercise their legal capacity.

- 7 -

Once the preliminary diagnostic assessment had been completed, a working group consisting of CEDDIS representatives, civil society, and professionals from diverse areas (anthropologists, sociologists, attorneys, physicians, psychologists, among others) would be set up to draft the instruction manual in order to implement in practice the CEDDIS General Observation on the legal capacity of persons with disabilities1/ adopted by CEDDIS at its first special meeting, in May 2011. The instruction manual would be directed at legal actors, legislators, and other public officials of the states of the region, who would collaborate in clarifying the question of “how” in the establishment of supports and the implementation of safeguards referred to in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention, but with specific attention paid to any needs detected in the replies to the questionnaire. The rapporteur submitted a progress report to CEDDIS on the present status and provided a summary of the completed questionnaires on existing normative frameworks for access to justice for persons with disabilities, training of and awareness-raising for justice officials, and architectural accessibility of court facilities, among other matters. Mr. Rosales invited the delegates to participate in drafting the rapporteur’s report and asked for inputs from officials and other colleagues. The final rapporteur’s report was tentatively expected to be submitted by the next meeting of the Committee.

The Committee’s officers authorized the rapporteur to work on drafting the report with other experts and organizations of persons with disabilities of their choosing, recommending specifically that he work with María Soledad Cisternas (present at that meeting as a special guest in her capacity as Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and with the Trust for the Americas. The Committee’s officers also recommended that the report consider current public policies on disabilities and their effective implementation and asked for a draft that was user-friendly from a technological point of view to facilitate its handling and distribution to recipients.

The Chair of CEDDIS requested that, if possible, consideration of the report be included on the agenda of the next Committee meeting.

b. Presentation of progress made in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities to

exercise legal capacity, from the viewpoint of civil society.

Pamela Molina, Project Manager of the Trust for the Americas, shared with the plenary the initial results of a mapping project coordinated by the Trust, which consisted of a survey of the legal capacity of persons with disabilities in six Latin American countries: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile. That mapping was part of a regional project being executed by the Trust titled “Promoting Recognition and Awareness of the Legal Capacity of Persons with Disabilities,” financed by the Open Society Institute (OSI). It had started in January 2012 and would end in November 2013. The mapping consisted of an analysis of the following factors: socio-demographic data on the population with disabilities as a whole and on persons with psychosocial disabilities, the existence of public institutions and policies related to psychosocial disabilities, the overall human rights situation of the target population group, applicable national and international legal frameworks,

1. The text of this General Observation may be found at the following link:

http://www.sedi.oas.org/ddse/documentos/discapacidad/English/CEDDIS_General%20Observation.DOC.

- 8 -

existing initiatives regarding effective implementation of the United Nations Convention and its Article 12, identification in each country of key leaders and actors committed to the matter and from a human rights paradigm, etc.

The main conclusions of the mapping exercise were as follows:

i. Overall, there is conceptual ambiguity, statistical imprecision, and a shortage of population data. The notion of disability is unclear; there is no definition or recognition of psychosocial disability, which means that it is invisible and generates incoherent statistics.

ii. There are serious socio-cultural barriers and stigmatization. The prevailing definition

of persons with disabilities remains related to the medical field and does not center on the social and human rights model that is the focus of the United Nations Convention. Psychosocial disability has become a stigma, resulting in exclusion and associated with danger, rejection, abuse, and grave violations of human rights.

iii. Abuse, mistreatment, abandonment, and exploitation are predominant, especially in the case of institutionalized persons with disabilities: specific studies are needed on human rights violations against institutionalized persons with disabilities, as was done in Mexico and Argentina.

iv. Families of persons with disabilities may be a very valuable source of support but

also a factor restricting their rights.

v. Judges, prosecutors, and public defenders are unaware of international law and tend to apply domestic norms (contrary to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention and the General Observation of CEDDIS) that advocate a patriarchal, assistance-based vision, more protective of a person’s property, establishing the system of “declarations of legal incompetence.” Justice officials are unfamiliar with the practical implementation of the United Nations and OAS conventions and often ignore them completely. Nor are there any monitoring mechanisms for following up on declarations of legal incompetence.

In light of these conclusions, the Trust for the Americas had recommended various lines of

action, such as promotion of reforms to civil codes that might have a negative impact on the legal capacity of persons with disabilities, in order to harmonize them with the new paradigm of the UN Convention; training and skills development of justice officials on international conventions on the matter, the organization of public campaigns to eradicate discrimination associated with psychosocial disabilities, the sharing of experiences on practical implementation of the support mechanisms provided for in Article 12 of the UN Convention, classroom and virtual workshops for persons with disabilities to make them aware of their identity and rights, and the establishment of an observatory on the rights of persons with disabilities in order to receive complaints on the matter, etc.

- 9 -

c. Presentation of progress made in promoting the right of persons with disabilities to

exercise their legal capacity, in the framework of the United Nations.

The Vice Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, María Soledad Cisternas, informed the plenary that an effort was also being made in the framework of the United Nations to harmonize the criteria for the implementation of Article 12 on legal capacity, which had been informally referred to as the heart of the Convention. She explained that a working group had been set up within the United Nations Committee to work on the different facets of the issue and that, in that regard, inputs had been received from various experts, organizations of persons with disabilities (PWD), and national and international NGOs, as well as views from the states parties, in order to consolidate guidelines on the matter through a “General Comment.”

In that connection, CEDDIS offered to make available to the United Nations Committee the report it would produce as a regional body, which would reflect the Hemisphere’s vision. Mrs. Cisternas reiterated her ongoing offer to cooperate with CEDDIS and her readiness to receive any inputs CEDDIS was kind enough to submit on the overall situation in the region.

The expert emphasized that implementation of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention was a “bridge” to the exercise of such other rights as access to justice, freedom, and security of person; the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; the prohibition of violence, exploitation or abuse; the right to live in the community; the right to establish a family and to humane treatment; and the political right to vote, among other rights. The United Nations Committee had been speaking out on those subjects, through its Final Observations to the state parties that had already submitted their reports on the United Nations Convention, through the mechanism for “constructive dialogue” with the Committee. Said observations contained recommendations with regard to Article 12 and other related articles of the Convention, all of which could serve as valuable input for the work of CEDDIS.

Mrs. Cisternas indicated that her presentation was made in her capacity as an individual expert and member of the Treaty body, since the UN Committee, as such, acted as a collegiate body. Second session

Presentation of successful experiences – part I: Misión Solidaria Manuela Espejo2/

(Ecuador)

Pursuant to Article VI.5 of the CIADDIS, CEDDIS is the forum responsible for the assessment of progress made in implementing the Convention and for the exchange of experiences among the states parties. Under the latter premise, several parts of the agenda focused on the presentation of successful national programs in some of the states parties to the CIADDIS. The first national experience shared with the plenary was that of Misión Solidaria Manuela

Espejo [Manuela Espejo Solidarity Mission], coordinated with the Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador. That program consisted of four lines of action aimed at the identification, study,

2. For further information about this program, click on the following link:

http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ec/programas/.

- 10 -

and registration at national level of persons with disabilities in order to provide them with access to development opportunities and basic services. Those four lines of action were study, care, inclusion, and prevention. During the study phase, the Mission had done a mapping of Ecuadoran localities in the mountains, on the coast, in the Amazonian region, and on the island peninsula, visiting remote areas to identify all persons with disabilities and keeping a geo-localization register. A total of 1,200,000 homes had been visited during that phase, with 293,578 persons with disabilities identified. During the care phase, the persons with disabilities located had been provided care in keeping with their specific needs. As of the current date, a total of 180,560 had received care, with 397,561 given technical aids, 5,919 homes equipped and made accessible, and 1,039 prosthetic devices provided. For its part, the inclusion phase had included a large awareness-raising component aimed at eliminating negative stereotypes and highlighting the potential of persons with disabilities. Along those lines, “walks for disability” had been organized, with the participation of more than 700,000 people; theatrical and musical performances featuring persons with disabilities had been mounted; and children’s fairs had been held, in order to instill the principle of respect for diversity. Among other results of the inclusion phase had been the educational mainstreaming of 2,500 visually impaired children, workplace insertion of 51,000 persons with disabilities, and the creation of the first official national sign-language dictionary. Prominent in the prevention phase had been the implementation of a related national program called “Con pie derecho [On the right foot],” whose objective was neonatal screening to prevent four diseases that led to disabilities. It was estimated that 300,000 children were born in Ecuador each year. To date, a total of 166.317 recent newborns had been screened. The Secretary of Communications of the Office of the Vice President of the Republic, Andrés Michelena, gave a detailed explanation of the global impact of the Manuela Espejo Mission and accompanied his presentation with videos on each of the Mission’s aforementioned phases. At the end of his presentation, he extended an invitation to CEDDIS to participate in two initiatives that were being organized from Ecuador:

1. As part of the commemoration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, every December 3, to select a specific theme (which would vary from year to year) to draw the international community’s attention to it, in order to promote effective policies on that area in the subsequent year. It was proposed that the International Day in 2012 also be recognized as “international day for the prevention of disabilities,” such that work in subsequent months would focus on campaigns to raise awareness of the causes of disabilities, which often come from household, traffic, or job-related accidents or from the lack of prevention during pregnancy, all of which were avoidable if the community is informed and aware.

2. Along the lines of the previous initiative, it was also proposed to CEDDIS that it join

forces to consolidate a Campaign for the Prevention of Disabilities in Latin America, with the participation of well known performers and sports figures from the countries of the region, so that, through TV spots or other means of publicity, the community would be taught about ways to prevent disabilities.

- 11 -

Third session

a. Summary of the conclusions of the report of the CEDDIS Working Group to evaluate

the situation of the Technical Secretariat for the Decade of the Americas for the

Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, SEDISCAP, presented at the Second

Special Meeting of CEDDIS, in April 2012.

The OAS Permanent Council, by resolution CP/RES. 926 (1625/08), adopted document

CP/CAJP-2538/07 rev. 3, prepared by the Informal Working Group to Study the Proposal for the Installation in Panama of SEDISCAP. Said document had established the parameters for the operations of SEDISCAP and its installation in Panama, including the financing plan to ensure the Secretariat’s sustainability. The financing plan included the establishment of a fund for voluntary contributions by the Organization’s member states and permanent observers, as well as from persons or entities, whether public or private, national or international, wishing to support the Secretariat. Likewise, by resolution CP/RES. 926 (1625/08), the Permanent Council had decided to establish said fund for the purpose of supporting the functioning of the Technical Secretariat and, at the same time, it estalished that the continued functioning of the Technical Secretariat would be subject to the availability of resources at the end of the first two years of its effective functioning.

An initial economic contribution from the Government of Panama would guarantee the functioning of the Secretariat for two consecutive years. Accordingly, the challenge was to ensure that, at the end of the first two years of operations, member states would follow Panama’s example and make contributions to the voluntary fund. Since the installation of SEDISCAP (which became official on April 21, 2008, the date on which the contract of its first Director became effective), no contributions other than the Government of Panama’s had been made to SEDISCAP, with the exception of a contribution received from Trinidad and Tobago in 2011 for US$5,000. Therefore, the sustainability of SEDISCAP had been possible over the last four years thanks to the contributions the Government of Panama had continued to make to date.

The OAS General Assembly, at its the fortieth regular session, held in Lima, Peru, from June 6 to 8, 2010, had adopted resolution AG/RES. 2598 (XL-O/10), “Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016) and Support for Its Technical Secretariat (SEDISCAP),” which instructed CEDDIS to participate in two activities:

1. An exhaustive evaluation of the operations of SEDISCAP; and

2. The formulation of recommendations to ensure its sustainability in the remainder of the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016).

On May 5, 2011, CEDDIS, at its first special meeting, had adopted resolution

CEDDIS/RES. 2 (I-E/11), which set up a working group comprising Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, and Peru, for the purpose of drafting a report containing an exhaustive evaluation of the operations of SEDISCAP and formulating recommendations to ensure its sustainability in the remainder of the Decade of the Americas, in keeping with the mandate issued by the OAS General Assembly in its aforementioned resolution, AG/RES. 2598 (XL-O/10).

- 12 -

The observations and recommendations of the Working Group had been compiled in report CEDDIS/doc.8 (II-E/12), which was circulated as a working document at the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, held in Lima, Peru, in April 2012.

Specifically, the analysis of the members of the Working Group had resulted in three recommendations from which the plenary had to select just one for adoption and subsequent referral to the OAS Permanent Council. Those recommendations were:

i. To submit the lines of action for implementation of the PAD to the Technical

Secretariat of CEDDIS and to have a single secretariat for both follow-up to the

Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

against Persons with Disabilities (CIADDIS) and the Program of Action for the

Decade (PAD).

ii. To maintain the SEDISCAP Technical Secretariat as it has been since its

establishment, strengthening ties with the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS,

including increased ties with the states parties and the national services for

disabilities.

iii. If the recommendation to merge the two secretariats (those of CEDDIS and the

PAD) is not approved, to change the status of SEDISCAP, making it an institute or

similar body, so that there would not be any duplication of functions or of areas of

competence with the Secretariat of CEDDIS.

Given the complexity of the subject and the limited time available for its consideration, the

Committee was unable to reach a consensus on a recommendation at its Second Special Meeting. Accordingly, the Chair proposed that further consideration be given to the matter at the Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS, with a view to completing the assigned task. At the appointed time, the CEDDIS officers deemed it appropriate to allow the SEDISCAP Director, Xenia de Vergara, to comment on that Secretariat’s role, before the plenary began its deliberations to adopt a recommendation.

b. Presentation on the role of SEDISCAP and the principal results obtained during its

Director’s tenure

The Director of SEDISCAP, Xenia de Vergara, thanked CEDDIS for its invitation and proceeded to comment on the current status of the Secretariat in terms of its operations and impacts. She pointed out that SEDISCAP had been established in the framework of the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, decreed by the OAS from 2006 to 2016, not only to follow up on the Program of Action but also as a forum for planning and carrying out activities that would lead to the inclusion of disability as a crosscutting issue on national agendas. As concerned monitoring of the Program of Action (PAD), in 2009 and 2010 SEDISCAP had received and processed the first national PAD compliance reports, with the results of that process presented to the Second Meeting of the Directors of Disability Institutions and Public Disability Policy Makers, held in Argentina in August 2010. She noted that SEDISCAP was currently developing a new system for processing the second national CIADDIS-PAD compliance reports,

- 13 -

which had been requested of the OAS member states in 2012, in hopes of systematizing the information on a platform that would reliably reflect the progress made in the region in each of the nine areas of action of the PAD. It was very important to recall that, as agreed at the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, in April 2012, two different processes had been established to evaluate the national reports of the states on the CIADDIS and the PAD, given that the same report was being used to evaluate two different instruments. The methodology agreed upon was the following:

- CEDDIS will evaluate only those reports submitted by states parties to the CIADDIS, issuing its observations to each state individually concerning the progress noted in achieving the objectives of the CIADDIS.

- SEDISCAP, for its part, will receive reports from all OAS member states that submit

them and will process the information in such a way as to evaluate compliance with the PAD, not individually but rather from a hemispheric perspective, seeking to reflect regional progress in each area of action of the PAD (health, education, employment, and accessibility, among others). The results of this regional evaluation conducted by SEDISCAP would be presented at the Third Meeting of the Directors of Disability Institutions and Public Disability Policy Makers, which brings together national authorities responsible for implementation of the PAD.

In light of the foregoing, Mrs. Vergara said that the Third Meeting of the Directors of Disability Institutions and Public Disability Policy Makers might be convened for April 2013 to give the national authorities responsible for following up on the Program of Action (generally the various CONADIS or SENADIS of the region) a first approximation of the global situation in the Americas regarding the nine areas of action envisaged in the plan. On a different note, the Director of SEDISCAP said that work was proceeding on an Inclusion Observatory to be set up on the basis of the data compiled from the CIADDIS-PAD compliance reports. That project would be executed pursuant to the mandate to serve as a forum for exchanging experiences in the Americas. She added that SEDISCAP had established cooperative ties with the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO), which it had advised concerning the implementation of inclusive actions and with which it had held discussions through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with a view to mainstreaming disability issues in national congresses. Hopefully it would be possible, through them, to establish “Fronts against Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities,” grouping together national or regional legislators who wished to help eliminate factors causing discrimination against persons with disabilities by promoting laws or legislative reforms to that effect. Based on the synergies established with the Inter-American Children’s Institute, the Director of SEDISCAP explained, emphasis had been placed on the need to incorporate children and adolescents with disabilities into draft laws on violence, trafficking in persons, migrant children, abandoned children, and institutionalized juvenile offenders, in addition to other efforts to mainstream the topic.

- 14 -

SEDISCAP had been working with private companies that had social responsibility programs, grouped into regional conglomerates (such as SUMARSE in Central America, CERES in Ecuador, and Forum Empresa, which consisted of more than 60 companies at the hemispheric level) to familiarize entrepreneurs with laws for hiring persons with disabilities and help them comply with those laws and to improve training programs for entrepreneurs and persons with disabilities, in order to promote workplace inclusion, with a focus on competitiveness and within a framework of respect for human rights. Mrs. Xenia de Vergara referred to Virtual Educa, a regional project sponsored by the OAS that promoted technology as a priority tool in the learning process and educational modernization. At the most recent meeting of that forum, held in Panama, a presentation had been made of the instruments of the CIADDIS-PAD inter-American system. In conclusion, the SEDISCAP Director commented on the ESVI-AL project (Virtual Inclusive Higher Education - Latin America), which sought to foster inclusion of students with disabilities and encourage the development of technical aids and adjustments to virtual systems so that they would support learning processes in higher education. SEDISCAP was part of the ESVI-AL Scientific Committee to organize the next meeting, to be held in Portugal.

c. Deliberations of the plenary

Following the presentation on SEDISCAP activities, the Chair offered the floor to delegations for comments. The special participant accredited to the meeting, representing Mexico, Mr. Oscar Esparza, shared the comments conveyed to him by his country, to the effect that Mexico did not agree with any of the three recommendations of the Working Group set out in document CEDDIS/doc.8 (II-E/12), cited above. Instead, it recommended that a single mechanism be defined for monitoring progress in the region—one that would be restructured, from the viewpoint of both personnel and objectives, and have the United Nations Convention as its framework. He pointed out that, in Mexico’s view, there was a duplication of efforts between SEDISCAP and the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS. The delegates from Brazil and Argentina, Fernando Ribeiro and Pablo Rosales, respectively, held a view similar to Mexico’s in that they considered that there was indeed a duplication of functions in the two technical secretariats and, since the Decade of the Americas would soon be coming to an end (in 2016), recommended that the two be emerged. However, they did not deem it appropriate to adhere solely to the monitoring process under the United Nations Convention and replace the regional process, since the Inter-American Convention together with the indicators for monitoring it had been tailored to the realities of the peoples of the Americas and since the regional process had a certain added value as it was more advanced than the universal process, in that CEDDIS was about to complete its evaluation of the second CIADDIS compliance report whereas the United Nations was still in the process of evaluating its first report given the large number of countries submitting it.

- 15 -

As an alternative, the delegate from Ecuador, Xavier Torres, proposed that, rather than having a specific secretariat for the report monitoring process, each CONADIS in the region have dedicated staff for that purpose. The delegate from Panama, for his part, reminded the plenary that the sphere of action of CEDDIS was restricted to those countries that had ratified the CIADDIS and, moreover, that its role had been restricted to monitoring compliance reports under said Convention. CEDDIS could not therefore assume responsibility for regional projects or initiatives undertaken by SEDISCAP, all the more so if they included countries not party to the Convention. Along the same lines, the Vice Chair of CEDDIS said that it might therefore be possible to consider not a specific secretariat for CEDDIS but an OAS executive secretariat on disability, which would of course carry out CEDDIS initiatives but also have other functions, such as serving as a repository for best practices and a liaison with countries. In a lively and protracted discussion in which multiple statements were made, two options were ultimately put to an individual vote as there was no consensus:

- Option A: To recommend a restructuring consisting of the establishment of a single

secretariat based in Washington, D.C., at the higher level of executive secretariat,

with the capacity to monitor all inter-American normative frameworks on disability

as well as to design and execute cooperation projects at the regional level and

undertake any mainstreaming or inclusion initiative.

- Option B: To recommend that the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS and SEDISCAP

remain as is until the end of the Decade of the Americas.

In the first round, the countries voted as follows:

- Option A: Argentina, Brazil, and Chile - Option B: Costa Rica, Panama, and Paraguay - The rest of the countries abstained.

After a brief exchange of views, the Chair of CEDDIS called for a second round of voting, with the following results:

- Option A: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica - Option B: Panama and Paraguay - The rest of the countries abstained.

Even though option “A” received a majority in the second round, the number of countries voting did not meet the requirement for the majority for taking decisions, established in Article 15 of the Rules of Procedure of the Committee, and it was therefore decided to postpone consideration of the matter to the following day.

- 16 -

Fourth session

a. Presentation of successful experiences – Part II: Inclusive national programs (Chile)

a.1 Various national policies

The Vice Chair of CEDDIS, María Ximena Rivas, shared some national initiatives and projects that had, or hopefully had, a positive impact on the inclusion levels of persons with disabilities in the country, such as those associated with ICTs, the work done to make the Websites of public institutions accessible, and dependence and early care programs, with an overview of public policy in those areas. Concrete measures had been taken to improve accessibility in the Santiago Metro, one of the principal means of transportation in that city; accessibility in public housing had been enhanced, concrete actions were being taken with regard to access to justice, with agreements concluded with institutions specialized in the defense of human rights (legal aid corporations, university legal clinics, and NGOs) and through joint efforts with the Judiciary. As concerns workplace inclusion, efforts were proceeding through the so-called LILE program, to obtain diagnostic and evaluation data on inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Executive.

a.2 Teletón Chile Foundation

The National Medical Director of Teletón Chile [Telethon Chile], Dr. Milton González, expressed appreciation for the invitation to participate in said forum and went on to share Teletón’s experience in Chile and its work with the International Organization of Telethons, ORITEL.

Teletón Chile’s mission was the comprehensive rehabilitation of children and youth with physical or multiple disabilities, with an emphasis on their self-care, so as to promote their inclusion in all social environments. Its motto was “Rehabilitate to Include.” Dr. González indicated that, to date, Teletón Chile kept 11 institutes operating throughout the country (with three more under construction), and, between 2011 and 2012, it had cared for approximately 27,000 children and youths with physical disabilities.

Dr. González shared various statistical data on Teletón Chile’s work, pointing out that the services provided had reached about 85 percent of persons with physical disabilities, especially moderate and severe ones, who were under 20 years of age. Some 3,200 children were being admitted every year and, from 2008 to 2012, the number of persons cared for had risen by 16.4 percent. Cerebral palsy remained predominant among the children receiving care and neuromuscular diseases had been on the rise, whereas there had been a 24 percent decline in neural tube lesions thanks to the enrichment of flour with folic acid since 2000. He also said that 66 percent of the 3,200 children admitted by Teletón Chile were currently under three years old and that most of the children it cared for came from low-income families.

Networking was a pillar of Teletón Chile’s work, with direct participation by the family and the community. Its services were provided completely free of charge as a result of Teletón’s fundraising campaign, which enabled it to finance its activities. In addition to providing rehabilitation services, Teletón Chile participated in undergraduate and graduate teaching activities to promote research. Its goal, Dr. González said, was to continue moving forward and learning new practices through international cooperation.

- 17 -

Dr. González said that Teletón Chile’s success had led to the exportation of that model to

other Latin American countries, which together had formed the International Organization of Telethons, ORITEL, currently made up of Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. ORITEL served as a forum for the exchange of experiences among the various entities that made it up, and its mission was to provide support for the creation, strengthening, positioning, and influence of the various organizations involved in disability rehabilitation in Latin America. The members of ORITEL provided rehabilitation services in almost 90 centers throughout the region, providing medical assistance to thousands of low-income persons with disabilities.

Among ORITEL’s current activities. Dr. González highlighted the project to establish a Latin American clearinghouse on disabilities (CILADI), through which a data system would hopefully be launched to enable persons receiving care to be registered and consolidate practices for handling the data generated in rehabilitation centers, thus facilitating the acquisition of comparable data and fostering future research to serve the entire international community. a.3 TV WEB: Accessible information for the national deaf community

3/

The Vice Chair of CEDDIS, Ximena Rivas, shared the innovative initiative taken by the Asociación de Sordos de Chile [Chilean Association of the Deaf] (ASOCH), with SENADIS sponsorship, consisting of the first TV Web in South America accessible to persons with hearing disabilities, offering said community the opportunity to receive national and international news broadcasts in all areas (economics, entertainment, sports) by means of Chilean sign language and subtitles. The objective of that initiative was to help the deaf community develop a critical and informed opinion, promote its social participation, and ease in part the difficulties it constantly faced because its access to information was curtailed. a.4 Sello Chile Inclusivo

4/

The Vice Chair of CEDDIS, María Ximena Rivas, explained that the Sello Chile Inclusivo [Chilean Seal of Inclusiveness] was a recognition given by the Government of Chile through the National Service for Disabilities, SENADIS, in the framework of Chilean–European cooperation, to public and private entities that took positive measures to include persons with disabilities.

That initiative, carried out since 2012, took the following factors into account in applications:

• Workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities based on nondiscriminatory policies.

• Evidence that infrastructure is in compliance with universal accessibility.

Either of the categories could be chosen, i.e., an application could opt for one category or the other. However, compliance with both warranted granting of the Sello Chile Inclusivo. New

3. For further information on this project, click on the following link: http://www.tvweb-sordos.cl/.

4. For further information on this project, click on the following link:

http://www.sellochileinclusivo.cl/.

- 18 -

application categories would be added the following year, so that recognition might be given in other areas, such as education, health, ICTs, etc.

She indicated that the Sello Chile Inclusivo would be awarded to national or regional public or private institutions or companies at an awards ceremony. Receiving the Sello Chile Inclusivo provided said organizations with proof of the efforts they were making with regard to inclusion of persons with disabilities. Social involvement generated direct benefits for organizations, such as strengthening of their public image in the eyes of consumers, users and beneficiaries, stockholders, the media, and other important actors for an institution, which resulted in increased motivation and commitment among staff members themselves and an enhanced position and image in the community.

Self-evaluation was itself a process of organizational development. The application process provided benefits to the applicant organizations. Self-evaluation alone, which must be conducted by the senior official of the organization, mobilized a large number of people, who were able to observe the organization from a system-wide perspective, committing itself to its global results in terms of inclusiveness. Thus, the development of a culture of learning was promoted in the organization with a view to steady improvements in the area of social inclusion of persons with disabilities. The self-evaluation conducted by the applicant organization was, at the end of the process, submitted for review, which was conducted by a group of SENADIS evaluators and by representatives of organizations of persons with disabilities, all of whom were guided by a strict code of ethics.

The feedback report received by the applicant organizations provided them with guidance for ongoing improvement and innovation.

b. Presentation of successful experiences – Part III: Programa Vivir sem limite5/

(Brazil)

The delegate from Brazil, Fernando Ribeiro, introduced the program Vivir sem limite [Living without Limits], coordinated by Brazil’s National Plan for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That program had been designed to promote inclusion of persons with disabilities through policies in four areas: education, health, social inclusion, and accessibility. Among other activities in the educational area of the program, a database had been created in 2012 on training courses accessible to persons with disability, an accessible school transportation network had been set up, resources had been allocated for architectural adjustments in public schools, multipurpose resource rooms with assistive technologies had been established, sign-language professors and translator/interpreters had been hired to ensure communication accessibility for students with hearing disabilities, and bilingual (Portuguese/sign language) teaching courses had been promoted.

In the health area, the program envisaged early intervention for disabilities, with the introduction of new tests as part of the evaluation of newborns (neonatal screening) in all states, until 2014. New Specialized Rehabilitation Centers had been established, along with orthopedic centers for

5. For further information on this project, click on the following link:

http://www.brasil.gov.br/viversemlimite.

- 19 -

the manufacture, adaptation, and maintenance of orthotic and prosthetic devices. New vehicles had been acquired for transporting low-income patients with disabilities and/or reduced mobility, and work was under way to improve dental care for persons with disabilities in accordance with their needs.

With regard to accessibility, the program Minha Casa Minha Vida (My Home, My Life) had been launched for the purpose of adapting more than one million homes of low-income families. Likewise the National Reference Center for Assistive Technology had been set up, along with several interdisciplinary regional centers for the development of technologies that promoted the accessibility, safety, independence, and autonomy of persons with disabilities. The Bank of Brazil had given microloans for the acquisition of assistive technology goods and services; a catalogue of support products had been published (http://assistiva.mct.gov.br/); and technological centers for training guide dog instructors had been established. Finally, the social inclusion area of the Vivir sin limites program envisaged, among other initiatives, home visits to assess the employment potential of persons with disabilities; the creation of day care centers to provide services to persons who were highly dependent, socially isolated, or abandoned; and the installation of inclusive residences to provide care for persons with disabilities in need. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012

Visit to the facilities of Teletón Chile

On Wednesday morning, the delegates from Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, and Uruguay visited the facilities of Teletón Chile, where they were received by the Director of the Institute in Santiago, Ricardo Eckardt. A tour of the various departments provided information about all available services and programs and about the technology used, thus enabling Chile to share its experience in child and youth rehabilitation.

Fifth session

a. Adoption by the Committee of the recommendation to strengthen SEDISCAP

In view of the Committee’s exhaustive discussions at its various meetings since October 2010 (following the General Assembly’s invitation to make recommendations regarding the sustainability of SEDISCAP) and considering the efforts of the working group established to that end, the delegations concluded that CEDDIS was hindered from reaching a decision on the future of SEDISCAP, since doing so would have an impact not only on the countries represented in CEDDIS (those that had ratified the CIADDIS) but also on the other member countries of the Organization, who were not members of that Committee but had endorsed the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (PAD) and had even made contributions to SEDISCAP operations.

- 20 -

Consequently, CEDDIS adopted resolution CEDDIS/RES.1 (IV-O/12),6/ whereby it recommended to the General Assembly that the matter be referred to the OAS Permanent Council since it was the body that had defined and adopted the parameters for the structure and operations of SEDISCAP and therefore the body best suited to adopt a recommendation in that regard.

b. Review of proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Committee

At the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, held in April 2012, a working group, composed of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, was set up to review the Rules of Procedure of the Committee. It was to be responsible for conducting a detailed review of the Rules of Procedure of the Committee in order to identify gaps or provisions that needed to be changed or deleted. Argentina was the only member of the working group to submit to the Technical Secretariat, on November 9, 2012, proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure, specifically to Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 15, and 16. Those proposals were duly referred to the plenary as one of the working documents for the Fourth Meeting. The delegations decided to use Argentina’s proposals as the base document, with each country using the third column of the matrix presented by Argentina to express its views on whether or not it agreed with the proposed amendment and/or to propose any changes it deemed relevant. Each country was to send its comments to the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS by March 31, 2013. The Technical Secretariat would consolidate all of the views received and present them to the Committee at its next meeting so that they could be voted upon.

c. Financial situation

The Secretary of CEDDIS provided the delegates with updated information on the financial situation of the Committee and its Technical Secretariat. It was recalled that at the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, held on April 25 and 26, 2012, in Lima, Peru, the Technical Secretariat had presented a budget estimate for the annual operations of CEDDIS and its Secretariat, totaling about US$222,751.47, to cover, among other things, the following:

i. Hiring of a full-time staff member who, together with the CEDDIS Secretary, would handle the heavy workload assigned by the Committee;

ii. Translation of CEDDIS documents; iii. Publication of its observations or manuals; iv. Specific advisory services for research, diagnostic assessments, or other products

entrusted by the Committee; v. Holding of meetings.

During the Second Special Meeting of CEDDIS, the then Chair of the Committee, Dr. Vanda Pignato, suggested to the delegates present that they distribute the budget estimate for CEDDIS

6. See Appendix I.

- 21 -

operations equally among all states parties, which made up the Committee, which would amount to an approximate yearly contribution of US$15,000 per state party, in order to guarantee greater operational flexibility for the Committee on the assumption that no external contributions were made. That proposal was unanimously adopted by the plenary, and the delegates present said they were prepared to make their best efforts to seek support from their respective governments. Thus, at its Second Special Meeting, CEDDIS adopted resolution CEDDIS/RES. 3 (II-E/12), “Contributions to the Specific Fund for the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities,” whereby it took note of the annual budget estimate for the operations of the Technical Secretariat and committed to take measures to obtain support contributions from the governments on the Committee for an equitable amount based on the amount shown in the annual budget estimate for its operations and the number of states parties to the CIADDIS, with the amount of each annual contribution calculated at fifteen thousand (15,000) United States dollars per year per state.

Along those lines, the following contributions were received in 2012:

DONOR CONTRIBUTION DATE

PERU7

5,000

March 2012

EL SALVADOR

15,000

June 2012

ECUADOR

15,000

October 2012

In 2012, the CEDDIS fund received a total of US$35,000, of which, as of the date of the meeting, the amount of $3,396 had been executed for travel costs for the Committee’s Technical Secretariat to attend the meeting convened by its officers in New York in 2012 to define the methodology for evaluating the second CIADDIS compliance report and to attend the Fourth Meeting of the Committee in Chile. CEDDIS funds were intended to be executed for activities falling under the following objectives:

i. Dissemination of the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CIADDIS)

ii. Professional support for the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS

iii. Implementation of tasks/initiatives/projects emanating from CEDDIS

iv. CEDDIS meetings

7. Peru was the first country to make a voluntary contribution to CEDDIS. Said contribution was made

before the Committee adopted resolution CEDDIS/RES. 3 (II-E/12) in April 2012. As of the date of this report, Peru has made a second contribution, for US$10,000, for execution in 2013.

- 22 -

It was pointed out that tentative plans exist to use resources in 2013 for technical advice on simplifying the form for the second CIADDIS-PAD compliance report, travel expenses, and document translation for future meetings of the Committee.

Sixth session

a. Considerations on the second CIADDIS-PAD report

a.1 Background

As widely commented on at various CEDDIS meetings, there is reciprocity between the

CIADDIS and the PAD owing to the following factors:

i. The similarity in the objectives sought by the two instruments

ii. The political forum from which they arose, the OAS

iii. The authorities responsible for monitoring them, since in most cases the CEDDIS members (who are entrusted with monitoring the CIADDIS) are also members of the CONADIS (national entities that monitor the PAD)

This reciprocity led the regional authorities in the disabilities area to conclude that the

submission of two compliance reports on the same subject (national progress in establishing an inclusive society) by the same country constituted a duplication of efforts, time, and resources, not to mention that almost all those OAS member countries must also present another report on compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They were therefore required to report the same information up to three times but in different formats. Moreover, as concerns the preparation of the first CIADDIS compliance reports, differences between them became apparent as they were received and evaluated, since each country had used a particular format to report on its progress.

Given that situation, the CEDDIS members (which evaluated the CIADDIS) and SEDISCAP (which evaluated the PAD) held technical meetings from 2008 to 2011 to consider the possibility of having OAS member states submit a single report on progress made in social inclusion in keeping with the objectives of both the CIADDIS and the PAD. That was the starting point for a new methodology for measuring progress, which would rest on brand new parameters and indicators jointly applicable to both normative instruments. The end result of that joint effort was a new, unprecedented form for the presentation of CIADDIS and PAD compliance reports, which was adopted at the First Special Meeting of the CIADDIS and the PAD, held in San Salvador in May 2011. That new form implicitly met the technical challenge of establishing specific parameters and indicators on disability and the political-strategic challenge, providing guidance to the states so that they would incorporate their ideal goals into their policies and plans of action and generate secure, permanent, and stable indicators and measurement systems.

- 23 -

On March 1, 2012, the OAS member states were asked, through their permanent missions, to submit the second CIADDIS and PAD compliance report and, to that end, they were provided with the new form officially adopted in 2011.

As of the time of the Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS, the following countries had submitted their reports:8/ Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. a.2 Process of evaluation of reports

Once the reports are received, it falls on CEDDIS to initiate the evaluation phase and to consolidate its observations and recommendations in another report, to be presented to the OAS General Assembly. In that connection, the CEDDIS officers convened an informal meeting, held in New York on September 11, 2011, to define the criteria for the evaluation process. The methodology agreed on by the CEDDIS officers was set out in document CEDDIS/doc.6 (IV-O/12), which was circulated to the Committee as a working input for the Fourth Meeting. That methodology is the following:

a. The Technical Secretariat will inform the Committee of the total number of reports received.

b. Six working groups will be established to evaluate the reports. These groups will

comprise delegates from the states parties to the CIADDIS, who will be selected by lot in the presence of a notary at OAS headquarters.

c. The CEDDIS Secretariat will inform the delegates of the composition of the working

groups, and each group will be sent the reports it is responsible for evaluating.

d. As a result of the drawing of lots on October 23, 2012, at the headquarters of the OAS General Secretariat, the working groups were set up as follows:

GROUP

MEMBERS

RESPONSIBLE FOR

EVALUATING THE REPORTS OF:

Group 1

• Guatemala

• Paraguay

• Venezuela

• Colombia

• Chile

• El Salvador

Group 2

• Bolivia

• Colombia

• Peru

• Ecuador

• Mexico

• Dominican Republic

8. The reports of El Salvador and Haiti were received a few days later.

- 24 -

Group 3

• Chile

• Costa Rica

• El Salvador

• Brazil

• Peru

• Uruguay

Group 4

• Argentina

• Dominican Republic

• Uruguay

• Guatemala

• Haiti

• Nicaragua

Group 5

• Haiti

• Nicaragua

• Panama

• Bolivia

• Paraguay

• Venezuela

Group 6

• Brazil

• Ecuador

• Mexico

• Argentina

• Costa Rica

• Panama

e. Each principal member delegate (or his/her respective alternate) must, during the

month prior to the meeting, complete a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) matrix or table for each country assigned to his or her working group.

f. As these SWOT matrixes are being completed, they must be submitted to the

CEDDIS Secretariat, preferably at least 10 days before the meeting, and the Secretariat will distribute them to each member of the working group responsible for evaluating the country in question.

g. Any country that cannot be represented at the meeting may send its SWOT matrix to

the CEDDIS Secretariat by e-mail.

h. The working groups will meet to evaluate the matrixes submitted by their members. Working panels will be set up by group, as done at recent meetings of the Committee.

i. At the outset of the meeting, the members of each working group should have

already reviewed the SWOTs presented by the members of their team.

j. Each working group will appoint a rapporteur, who will be responsible for consolidating the SWOT matrixes for each country and who will prepare, with support from the other members of the team, a data sheet for each country.

k. On the last day of the meeting, the rapporteur for each group will present the draft

data sheet for each country to the plenary, or an approximation thereof if there is not sufficient time to complete it during the meeting, with the final data sheet, once completed, transmitted later to the Technical Secretariat.

- 25 -

l. The Technical Secretariat will consolidate all the data sheets presented and draft a preliminary report, which will be submitted to civil society for observations.

m. Once civil society inputs have been received, additions will be made to the

preliminary report so as to produce the final report, which is to be approved by the CEDDIS plenary at a future meeting convened for that purpose.

n. After the plenary’s approval of the Final Report, it will be submitted to the OAS

General Assembly.

As the country reports were received, the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS sent each working group those it was responsible for evaluating, to enable each group member to prepare its SWOTs prior to the Fourth Meeting. a.3 Difficulties expressed

The Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS was originally convened to launch the evaluation phase of the CIADDIS compliance reports, in accordance with the procedure set out in the previous section. However, said evaluation process could not be launched for the following reasons:

i. Eight of the 18 states that had ratified the CIADDIS had not, as of the date of the meeting, presented their reports (although information was received that some said they were preparing them).

ii. Most of the groups were incomplete since some delegations could not attend the

meeting because problems had arisen.

iii. The groups that were complete (4 and 6) could not begin their work either because the countries they were supposed to evaluate had not submitted their reports or because the group members had not presented their SWOTs.

iv. As of the date of the Fourth Meeting, only Mexico and Bolivia had sent the SWOTs

for the countries they were to evaluate. In view of those circumstances, each delegation was given the opportunity to share its experience with the preparation process of the second report. The special accredited participant, representing Mexico, Oscar Esparza, drew attention to his country’s position regarding the methodology the Committee had recently adopted to evaluate the CIADDIS and the PAD. That position was set forth in the document “Position of Mexico on the Methodology for Follow-up and Submission of the Second CIADDIS-PAD Compliance Report,” circulated earlier by the Committee Secretariat as a reference document for the Fourth Meeting. In Mexico’s view, the form for presenting the report had to be changed and the indicators presented revised. Mexico suggested a means of analysis for trimming down said indicators and bringing them into line with the norms and legislation in force in each country or with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

- 26 -

Mexico stated, among other arguments for that recommendation, that the calculation algorithms used for measuring an indicator in most cases yielded results that did not reflect the degree of effectiveness of the legislation or the strategies implemented by the states to protect and guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities. Likewise, it pointed out, among other reasons, that the indicators and calculation algorithms were composed of variables not applicable uniformly to the states parties to the CIADDIS and that, not only in Mexico but also regionally, very few countries had access to the data needed to calculate the goals established and even to set new goals for 2015. Consequently, Mexico recommended to CEDDIS that it reconsider the methodology established for the second CIADDIS compliance report. Mexico’s observations were shared with the delegations for comments, and a majority of them agreed that, in that first pilot exercise using the new form, the countries had indeed encountered difficulties in collecting the information requested because the statistical or percentage data requested were not available or because said data were not systematized. The comment was also made that some indicators might be redundant or ambiguous. Based on those considerations, the plenary decided to review the form adopted in 2011 for presentation of the second CIADDIS-PAD compliance report, with a view to reaching a consensus on a simplified revised version, which was ultimately the one that would be evaluated by the working groups. To that end, each delegation had to present to the CEDDIS Technical Secretariat, by March 31, 2013, a list of those indicators that should be eliminated or changed as they were considered to be ambiguous, redundant, or inapplicable to the region. It should be pointed out that suitability of the indicator should not be confused with the current inability of the state to respond to it because a lack of data, since the very existence of the indicator might actually lead a state to promote a measure or policy to collect the data that the indicator was to evaluate, and in the medium term it would be able to respond. The Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS will receive all the proposals for indicators to be eliminated or changed and will contract the services of an expert to consolidate, on the basis of all the opinions received, a simplified version of the form for submission of the second CIADDIS-PAD compliance report. This new simplified version will have to be approved by the Committee at a future special meeting held for that purpose (once the expert has submitted the proposed new form). Following the formal adoption of the new simplified form, the countries will adjust the reports they presented in 2012 and resubmit them to the Technical Secretariat. After that, the Fifth Meeting of CEDDIS will be convened for the purpose of evaluating the reports.

b. Presentation of the Latin American and Caribbean Inter-University Network on

Disability and Human Rights

The Chilean academics Alberto Madrid Rojas and María Paz Iturriaga introduced the Latin

American and Caribbean Inter-University Network on Disability and Human Rights, made up of academic institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay, whose main interest was recognition of the human rights of persons with disabilities in the university environment and the impact of inclusive higher education on the quality of life of persons with disabilities.

- 27 -

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Seventh session

The seventh working session focused on consideration of the following other business.

a. Activities planned for 2013

i. Third Special Meeting of CEDDIS: This meeting would tentatively be convened for

the first half of 2013, essentially for the adoption of the new simplified form for submission of the CIADDIS-PAD compliance report, once the designated expert has submitted the simplified version of the form, taking into account the observations made by the countries on those indicators on the original form that should be eliminated or changed. The revision of the Rules of Procedure of CEDDIS is intended to be completed at that meeting.

ii. Fifth Regular Meeting of the Committee: This meeting will be convened once the

CIADDIS-PAD compliance reports have been received in their revised version (adjusted to the simplified form), for the purpose of launching the report evaluation phase. Also planned for this meeting is the presentation of the final regional diagnostic assessment on the status of legal capacity of persons with disabilities.

iii. Other initiatives: The Vice Chair of the Committee, María Ximena Rivas, proposed

that, in 2013, CEDDIS work on reinforcing mechanisms for publicizing its activities, by issuing bulletins (quarterly, biannual, or as needed depending on activities) to increase the Committee’s visibility. Likewise, Chile offered to present, at the next CEDDIS meeting, a proposal on a Data Bank of Best Practices, to be posted on the CEDDIS Website. The delegate of Ecuador also supported compiling a portfolio of best practices. For his part, the delegate from Costa Rica, Francisco Villalta, suggested that the agenda for the next CEDDIS meeting include an item on the definition of a strategy for repositioning CEDDIS, so as to heighten the Committee’s visibility. That strategy could include a data bank on CEDDIS initiatives, along the lines of Chile’s proposal.

b. Site of future meetings

The delegations of Ecuador and Costa Rica offered to host the Committee meetings scheduled for 2013. In principle, the Third Special Meeting of CEDDIS was to be held in Ecuador, while the Fifth Regular Meeting was to be held in Costa Rica.

- 28 -

c. Adoption of resolutions

The final item on the agenda was the adoption of the following resolutions:

i. “Vote of Thanks of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities to the People and Government of the Republic of Chile” [CEDDIS/RES.2 (IV-O/12)], contained in Appendix II to this report; and

ii. “Request by the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

against Persons with Disabilities to Establish an Inter-American Body to Address the Issue of Disabilities in the Region” [CEDDIS/RES. 3 (IV-O/12)], contained in Appendix III to this report. This resolution was adopted in response to the recommendations made during the discussions held in connection with the adoption of a recommendation on the sustainability of SEDISCAP, at the third working session on November 27.

Dialogue with civil society

In accordance with Article V of the CIADDIS, the Committee set aside time for representatives of organizations of persons with disabilities to participate, in order to hear their concerns, recommendations, and inputs. Using an unprecedented approach, Chilean civil society listed the order of presentations by subject matter:

i. Public policies regarding dependency, by Verónica Olave ii. Educational mainstreaming, by Pamela Montero iii. Workplace inclusion, by César Rodríguez iv. Citizen participation, by Enrique Norambuena v. Institutionalization of persons with disabilities, REVIC vi. Legal capacity of persons with disabilities, by Alberto Carvajal vii. Discrimination and forms of perception, by Pablo Morales

The presentations were followed by a dialogue between civil society and the CEDDIS representatives. The observations made by civil society were compiled in a manifesto contained in Appendix IV to this report. Chilean civil society organizations of persons with disabilities took the opportunity to present an award, through the President of the Unión Nacional de Ciegos de Chile [National Union of the Blind of Chile] (UNCICH), Sergio Cabello, to María Soledad Cisternas, for her work in favor of the rights of persons with disabilities.

- 29 -

Closing session.

The working sessions having been concluded and all the agenda items discussed, the Vice Chair of the Committee, María Ximena Rivas, thanked all delegations for their participation in the Fourth Meeting of CEDDIS and declared the meeting closed. IV. RECAPITULATION OF AGREEMENTS ADOPTED AT THE WORKING SESSIONS OF

THE FOURTH MEETING OF CEDDIS A. SECOND REPORT OF CIADDIS-PAD

1. The members of CEDDIS must present, by March 31, 2013, a list of indicators they consider must be eliminated or changed, along with explanations.

2. All observations received will be transmitted to an expert to be hired to consolidate

the second version of the form, the simplified version, taking into account the countries’ proposals.

3. Once the results of the consultant’s work (the proposed simplified form) have been

received, the Third Special Meeting of CEDDIS will be convened, for formal adoption of the simplified form.

4. After adoption of the simplified report, the states should resubmit their adjusted

reports to the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS, and the project evaluation process will begin according to the methodology adopted by the CEDDIS officers in September 2012 in New York.

5. Once the working groups have received the SWOTs, the Fifth Regular Meeting of

the Committee will be convened, tentatively in late 2013, to draw up the preliminary report with the countries’ evaluation results.

B. RECOMMENDATION ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF SEDISCAP CEDDIS adopted resolution CEDDIS/RES.1 (IV-O/12), whereby it decided to recommend to the OAS General Assembly that the matter be referred to the Permanent Council of the Organization since it was the body that had defined the parameters for the operations of SEDISCAP. C. OTHER BUSINESS

1. The members of CEDDIS must use as a basis the proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Committee presented by Argentina and submit its suggested changes, if any, to the Technical Secretariat of CEDDIS, by at least 30 days before the next meeting.

- 30 -

2. At the Third Special Meeting of CEDDIS, a decision was made to include on the agenda “Bases for a regional prevention campaign” (Ecuador), “Presentation of a proposed Data Bank of Best Practices of CEDDIS” (Chile), and “Strategy for the Committee’s visibility” (Costa Rica).

- 31 -

APPENDICES

- 33 -

APPENDIX I FOURTH MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OEA/Ser.L/XXIV.3.1 FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS CEDDIS/RES.1 (IV-O/12) DISCRIMINATION AGAINST 28 November 2012 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Original: Spanish November 27 to 29, 2012 Santiago, Chile

CEDDIS/RES.1 (IV-O/12)

RECOMMENDATION OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES WITH REGARD TO THE TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT FOR THE DECADE OF THE AMERICAS FOR THE RIGHTS

AND DIGNITY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, SEDISCAP

(Adopted at the fifth plenary session, held on November 28, 2012) THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, Meeting in the city of Santiago, Chile, in the framework of its Fourth Meeting, held from November 27 to 29, 2012; RECALLING the Declaration of the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016), adopted in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, under the theme “Equality, dignity, and participation” [AG/DEC. 50 (XXXVI-O/06)], and the resolution “Installation in Panama of the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016)” [CP/RES. 926 (1625/08)]; BEARING IN MIND resolution AG/RES. 2598 (XL-O/10), “Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016) and Support for Its Technical Secretariat (SEDISCAP),” whereby the General Assembly instructed the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CEDDIS) to make an exhaustive evaluation of the operations of SEDISCAP and to draw up recommendations to ensure its sustainability in the remainder of the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (2006-2016), so that the results of that evaluation may be submitted to the Permanent Council for consideration; RECALLING resolution CEDDIS/RES.2 (I-E/11), which set up a working group comprising Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, and Peru, for the purpose of responding to the mandate issued by the General Assembly in its AG/RES 2598 (XL-O/10), referred to in the preceding paragraph;

- 34 -

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT document CEDDIS/doc.8 (II-E/12), “Final Report of the CEDDIS Working Group on the Operations of the Technical Secretariat for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities and Recommendations to Ensure Its Sustainability,” containing the Working Group’s conclusions, which were duly shared and discussed with the plenary; CONSIDERING the extensive deliberations of CEDDIS during its First Working Group Meeting, held in Washington, D.C., in October 2010; its First Special Meeting, held in San Salvador in May 2011; its Second Special Meeting, held in Lima in 2012; and its Fourth Meeting, held in Santiago, Chile, in November 2012; RECALLING that, pursuant to resolution AG/RES. 2339 (XXXVII-O/07), adopted by the General Assembly at its thirty-seventh regular session, all OAS member states endorsed the Program of Action; and BEARING IN MIND that the jurisdiction of CEDDIS is restricted to the countries that have ratified the Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, as established in Article VI of the Convention, RESOLVES:

1. To communicate that the Committee was hindered from reaching a decision on the future of SEDISCAP, since doing so would have an impact not only on the countries represented in CEDDIS (those that have ratified the CIADDIS) but also on the other 17 member countries of the Organization who were not members of that Committee but have endorsed the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (PAD) and have even made contributions to its operations.

2. To recommend to the General Assembly that the Permanent Council be the body that makes recommendations on the sustainability of SEDISCAP in the remainder of the Decade since it was the body that defined and adopted the parameters for the structure and operations of SEDISCAP.

3. To congratulate the CEDDIS Working Group established to conduct an exhaustive evaluation of the operations of SEDISCAP and to formulate recommendations on its sustainability, as well as the Technical Secretariat of the Committee for its hard work, which made the performance of that task possible.

- 35 -

APPENDIX II

FOURTH MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OEA/Ser.L/XXIV.3.1 FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS CEDDIS/Res. 2 (IV-O/12) DISCRIMINATION AGAINST 29 November 2012 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Original: Spanish November 27 to 29, 2012 Santiago, Chile

CEDDIS/RES.2 (IV-O/12)

VOTE OF THANKS OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TO THE PEOPLE AND

GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE

(Adopted at the eighth plenary session, held on November 29, 2012) THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, CONSIDERING that the Fourth Meeting of the Committee was held in Santiago, Chile, from November 27 to 29, 2012; and RECOGNIZING the hospitality and welcome, as well as the kind attention, extended by the Government of the Republic of Chile during said meeting, RESOLVES:

1. To express its appreciation to the people and Government of the Republic of Chile for their generous hospitality and their decisive and effective support, which contributed to the success of the Fourth Meeting of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.

2. To thank the National Service for Disabilities (SENADIS) and its staff for their outstanding efficiency, dedication, and professionalism, which were a valuable logistic contribution before and during the Fourth Meeting of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.

3. To express its thanks to the national representative of Chile to CEDDIS and to the local support team for the welcome and cordiality extended.

- 37 -

APPENDIX III FOURTH MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OEA/Ser.L/XXIV.3.1 FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS CEDDIS/RES. 3 (IV-O/12) DISCRIMINATION AGAINST 29 November 2012 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Original: Spanish November 27 to 29, 2012 Santiago, Chile

CEDDIS/RES.3 (IV-O/12)

REQUEST BY THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

TO ESTABLISH AN INTER-AMERICAN BODY TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF DISABILITIES IN THE REGION

(Adopted at the eighth plenary session, held on November 29, 2012)

THE COMMITTEE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, Meeting in the city of Santiago, Chile, in the framework of its Fourth Meeting, held from November 27 to 29, 2012; TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the objectives of the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CIADDIS), to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities and to promote their full integration into society; RECALLING that the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CEDDIS) was established pursuant to Article VI of the aforementioned Convention, to examine the progress made in implementing that instrument and to enable the states parties to share experiences; BEARING IN MIND that disability is addressed, at the departmental level of the Organization of American States, within the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development, under which the Technical Secretariat of the Committee has been established; CONSIDERING the existence of other OAS entities or agencies, such as inter-American committees or institutes, generally constituted to monitor progress made in implementing an inter-American convention signed by the states parties and to execute programs conducive to its implementation in the region;

- 38 -

HAVING SEEN the need to reiterate to the OAS states parties the commitments made to persons with disabilities in the region, through the adoption of the Inter-American Convention and the Program of Action for the Decade of the Americas for the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, in terms of developing programs to promote the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, not only in national settings but also in the regional sphere, so that efforts to eliminate discrimination are expanded and mainstreamed throughout the region, RESOLVES: To firmly request the OAS Permanent Council to increase the level of the forum for consideration of disabilities to that of a body similar to the inter-American committees or institutes that exist to address, inter alia, women, children, ports, drugs, and agriculture, in order to heighten the visibility of disabilities in the region, strengthen cooperation initiatives and programs at the hemispheric level, and have a greater impact on the implementation of the inter-American instruments on disabilities, the CIADDIS and the Program of Action.

- 39 -

APPENDIX IV

CIVIL SOCIETY MANIFESTO

Fourth Meeting of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.

Santiago, Chile, November 29, 2012.

We, Persons with Disabilities and Their Families and Relatives, through their own organizations and those that represent them, convened at the prompting of the National Service for Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Development and meeting during the preparatory working sessions,

Express our appreciation to the Committee for affording us the opportunity to express our demands in this area.

Commend the initiative to join forces to bring about social equity and equal opportunity, incorporating in that regard the presence of civil society and, upon hearing our voice, approving innovative practices from a participatory viewpoint aimed at having an effective impact on the design of public policy.

Recognize that this incipient process requires long-term commitments, both by the signatory states and by civil society itself, so that it may effectively take shape and thus improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities and their families.

Consider that policies in effect under global, hemispheric, regional, and national systems should emphasize the supremacy of the principle of self-representation, which must be reflected through the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities themselves.

In Chile, it is estimated (Endisc 2004) that 12.9 percent of the population, or about two million people, have some form of disability.

Value the advances made in recognizing the rights of persons with disabilities and their families and organizations, which must be followed by concrete policies to eliminate all forms of discrimination in order to narrow the enormous gap between those persons and others, in this regard.

Consider likewise that it is essential to zero in on prevention, which must be included as a component of government health policies rather than in the sphere of the human rights of, and nondiscrimination against, persons with disabilities.

CEDDIS should acknowledge that Chile is moving forward in public policies aimed at preventing disabilities, but this should not deflect its efforts and actions, which we consider should focus on the intense, widespread discrimination that affects those currently living with disabilities in

- 40 -

Chile (more than two million of them according to Endisc 2004) and more than 100 million in the Americas, according to PAHO/WHO.

Appreciate the efforts to harmonize the Guatemala Convention with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, through the adoption of resolution CEDDIS/RES.1 (I-E/11), which encouraged a more appropriate interpretation that defines declarations of the incompetence or incapacity of persons with disabilities as discriminatory acts that limit or extinguish their rights, based on the substitution model prevalent in the civil codes of our country versus the decision-making model with supports, set forth in aforementioned Article 12 of the UN treaty.

In view of the foregoing, we express:

1. Our support for Government of Ecuador’s proposal to declare 2013 as the year of workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities (PWDs) to the extent that the declaration has a direct and effective impact on the grim workplace inclusion figures in our country and to the extent that it takes the form of actual inclusion programs, developed with the full, effective participation of persons with disabilities.

2. Our demand that civil society organizations be financed directly and permanently by the state, in order to achieve their participation and ensure a real impact on the design and implementation of public policy.

3. Our demand that all reports drawn up and submitted to international bodies be prepared with the active participation of civil society organizations.

4. The urgent need for the Government of Chile to update periodically data on persons with disabilities, so as to enhance public policy design and implementation and ensure citizen participation by this group.

5. The need to change the structure of the Committee to enable persons with disabilities to be fully included and participate in its membership and activities.

6. That the Government of Chile assign to SENADIS, or promote the creation or certification of some other body entrusted with, the competence to monitor and punish flagrant forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities that occur in our country, and that this body also have the function of receiving reports, providing advice, and becoming a party to civil, criminal, or other corresponding actions for violations of the rights of persons with disabilities. In summary, that the provisions of the UN Convention that call for an independent body with the power to protect the rights of persons with disabilities be complied with.

7. That, in our view, discrimination is a form of human rights violation and must be considered and addressed accordingly by the Government of Chile, as stated in Law 20.609, enacted in June this year, which established provisions against arbitrary discrimination.

8. That we need and demand more action and fewer declarations.

- 41 -

We, the persons with disabilities representing ourselves and the organizations of and for persons with disabilities participating in this forum for social dialogue, stand ready and will stand ready to eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities.

This readiness includes joint efforts with organs of the Government of Chile and international organizations on the fundamental condition of unrestricted respect for the autonomy and independence of persons with disabilities and the organizations representing them.

In short, “Nothing about us without us.”

This manifesto is endorsed by the following:

Fundación Esperanza Nuestra [Our Hope Foundation] National Coordinator for persons, relatives, and friends of persons with mental health conditions Fundación Rostros Nuevos [New Faces Foundation] Red Vic [Vic Network] Liga Chilena Contra el Mal de Parkinson [Chilean League against Parkinson’s Disease] Agrupación nacional de usuarios de servicios de salud mental [National Group of Users of Mental Health Services] Agrupación de Víctimas de la Talidomida en Chile [Group of Thalidomide Victims in Chile] Unión de padres y amigos de personas con discapacidad mental [Union of Parents and Friends of Persons with Mental Disabilities] Asociación Nacional de Sordos de Chile [Chilean Association of the Deaf] Unión Nacional de Ciegos de Chile [National Union of the Blind of Chile] Fundación Crescendo [Crescendo Foundation] Fundación Descúbreme [Discover Me Foundation]