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Disability Rights NewsletterHuman Rights Commission // Te Kahui Tika Tangata | ||
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Commissioner Robyn Hunt New disability convention makes a differenceMost readers will be aware that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been ratified by New Zealand and has the support of all political parties. The CRPD has brought a fundamental shift in the disability world. No longer are disabled people seen as objects of charity, or purely as people with a medical condition. Disabled people are subjects with rights. This means that not only do governments need to take action to fulfil their obligations, but service providers and others may want to rethink the way they relate to disabled people and work with them. Ratification is the beginning of a process of implementation and monitoring which has the potential to make a real difference to the lives of New Zealanders with disabilities. Disabled people around the world worked very hard during the development of the Convention to make sure it is the best it could be. They succeeded to a great extent. As a result the Convention has practical relevance to the daily lives of all disabled people, for example Article 9 gives very clear guidance on accessibility. It says that accessibility barriers should be removed from “buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities". Article 9 also includes “schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces". This article takes a wide and inclusive view of accessibility. It goes on to say that information, communications and other services, including electronic and emergency services should also be accessible. The CRPD gives governments guidance on the human rights of disabled people, and disabled people a powerful tool to advocate for their rights, by stating that they must be involved in monitoring it. To have a say in the monitoring of the Convention disabled people have to be involved. The catch cry of the international disability rights movement is “Nothing about us without us!” This means disabled people’s organisations can work with government and others to make sure the CRPD works for all disabled people. To begin with everyone needs to know what the CRPD says. That isn’t as difficult as it might seem. There are plain language, easy read, Braille, large print and children’s versions of the Convention. NZ Sign will be available soon. To start learning about the CRPD click this link. Passionate advocates drive change
The pilot project, launched this year, involves Hamilton’s CBD shuttle buses trialling modifications to buses and bus-stops to make them accessible to the city’s disabled people. Though, as Marceli Davison from the NZ Transport Agency and facilitator of the project says, the changes will benefit the whole community. The project has support from disability organisations and local and central government, and is heralded as a model for others around the country. “We’ve been equal partners in the project,” says Gerri Pomeroy. “Change happens through relationships. The regional council (Environment Waikato) and the Hamilton City Council have been really inclusive and great to work with.” Geri says she's been on a personal journey. “Seven years ago I joined the group Access for All that Kevin Churchill was running at CCS Disability Action. I was quite isolated by my disability at the time and it was a way for me to do something practical. “In 2005 the Human Rights Commission’s transport inquiry report The Accessible Journey came out. By that time I was a member of the Regional Land Transport committee and at one of their social functions I took along copies of The Accessible Journey report, with relevant recommendations marked, and asked members of the local agencies and councils whether they knew about it. A few weeks later our Access for All group followed up the initial contact and said, ‘We’ve got some ideas about transport, we’d like to talk to you about them’.” Kevin says, “We used the HRC submission process and the final report as the major tool or lever to convince the national transport authorities to move on the issue. The HRC has been a major catalyst, both in motivating us and ensuring that we had good information to present to the powers that be. Environment Waikato has also been exemplary in listening to the disabled community.” In 2006 LTNZ agreed to fund a project which involved Environment Waikato, Hamilton City Council and CCS Disability Action’s Access for All. The Accessible Journey's pilot team worked together for 12 months, researching current bus network standards from around the world, getting comments on other aspects of the accessible journey such as information systems and infrastructure design, and then used this information and feedback from users with accessibility issues, as the basis for change and implementation of the Hamilton Accessible Journey's pilot. The findings from the pilot will have national ramifications, helping inform the new minimum standards for urban buses which the NZ Transport Agency are currently working on. “The standards cover all aspects of buses and our data will be invaluable for those relating to accessibility,” says Marceli Davison, project leader. Kevin sees the pilot as a useful first step. “The level of access achieved by the pilot is good, but more work needs to be done if disabled people are to use buses and trains independently. I hope by continuing to work collaboratively, we’ll be able to convince the Ministry of Transport that more resources and co-ordination from them is needed to create a genuinely accessible transport system.” A truly accessible transport system will open doors for people to claim all the human rights associated with community life,” says Gerri. For more information on the pilot click here. Project to improve public transport informationAn ongoing project at the Ministry of Transport aims to make it easier for people with disabilities to find and use public transport information. This includes accessible websites, plain language versions of information pamphlets and text versions of booking services for those who find using the telephone difficult. So far, the Ministry has taken a snapshot of information from Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch and compared it with the New South Wales Best Practice Manual for the Publication and Display of Public Transport Information 2000. Overall the quality of information was good; however some regions did better than others. The best practice guidelines will offer advice on ways of displaying public transport information, and when and where providers and operators should provide accessible information to passengers. “We are in the process of collating this information so that it can be passed on to the NZ Transport Agency,” says Megan Beecroft, Manager, Public Transport, Access and Mobility. “The NZ Transport Agency intends to produce accessibility guidance for its approved organisations. While the exact scope of these guidelines is yet to be confirmed it is envisaged these will build on the work being done towards implementing The Accessible Journey.” Convention leads to Human Rights Act amendmentIn order to pave the way for New Zealand to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, two new acts made their way through Parliament in September. “The Human Rights Commission has been lobbying for a long time to have changes made to the Human Rights Act (HRA),” says Sylvia Bell, Principal Legal and Policy Analyst for the Commission. “There has been dissatisfaction among disabled people, who felt the Human Rights Act provided a lower level of rights than for non-disabled people. "The Act listed exceptions to the provision of human rights and a significant number of those centred around organisations and bodies only having to provide ‘reasonable accommodation'. “Amongst other changes, we hoped the amended Act would provide a definition of ‘reasonable accommodation’. We considered the interests of disabled people would be better served if the HRA contained a definition based on that in the Convention, and included a general obligation to accommodate disability. "I would have preferred a definition which meant that the needs of disabled people were really protected.” In their submission on the Disability (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Bill (which later split into two separate acts, the second one being the Human Rights Amendment Act 2008), the Commission supported the Bill as it would allow ratification of the UN Convention. “Ratification is a significant step to ensuring the protection of the rights of disabled people,” says Sylvia. However, she says the HR Amendment Act has not been strengthened as much as she’d hoped. “As it stands at present it still leaves employers, landlords etc with a defence if it is not ‘reasonable’ to provide certain services. I think more could have been done but it could have held up the ratification process and that would have been even more unfortunate,” she says. Click here to see the Human Rights Commission letter to the select committee: Surcharge for wheelchair taxisThe following case study appeared in Te Rito - November 2008. Published annually, Te Rito features a cross-section of complaints about discrimination received by the Human Rights Commission. What happenedJan, who uses a wheelchair, was astonished to find she and others in her situation had to pay a $10 surcharge for the hire of a taxi van with a hoist. Although the surcharge was applied to all taxi vans, she thought the practice was indirect discrimination because people with wheelchairs did not have the choice of using other types of taxi vehicles. The disputes resolution processJan complained to the Commission and entered mediation with the taxi company. At the time the New Zealand Taxi Federation was negotiating with Land Transport New Zealand for a subsidy for owners of wheelchair accessible taxis. The outcomeMediation concluded amicably and the taxi company promised to let Jan know about the outcome of the Taxi Federation's negotiations. Negotiations were successful and now a Land Transport NZ subsidy covers the surcharge for disabled passengers when a Total Mobility voucher is used. Resources and linkshttp://www.aifo.it/english/resources/online/books/cbr/manual_human_rights-disability-eng07.pdf http://www.handicap-international.fr/en/our-approach-to-disability/une-convention-internationale/kit-pedagogique-sur-la-convent/index.html (click where it says “click here” on the page) http://www.handicap-international.fr/kit-pedagogique/documents/ressourcesdocumentaires/apadoption/DisabilityRightsAdvocacyWorkbook2007.pdf http://www.hpod.org/pdf/we-have-humna-rights.pdf http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/TB6/index2.html http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_cfc_questionnaire.php |
Welcome to the latest Human Rights Commission newsletter. We want to keep you up to date on our activities and with information about human rights and disability. Importantly we also want to encourage you to give us feedback on human rights issues and our work. The first feedback we want is suggestions for a name for the newsletter. We are offering $100 for the best suggestion received by 15 December, 2008. Please send your ideas for names and your daytime phone contact to 
If you trace the Hamilton Pilot Project back to its origins, you’ll come across two passionate advocates – Kevin Churchill and Gerri Pomeroy, from Waikato CCS Disability Action – who took the personal and made it political.  |
For more information about the Disability Rights, please contact Sarah Gordon at sarahg@hrc.co.nz or 04 471 6740 Further Information is also available from our website The views contained in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the position of the Human Rights Commission. To unsubcribe from this or any other newsletters from the NZ Human Rights Commission, or update your email address, please use the links at the end of this email. . |