Over 600 million people, or approximately ten per cent of the world?s population, have a disability of one form or another. Over two thirds of them live in developing countries. Only two per cent of disabled children in the developing world receive any education or rehabilitation. The link between disability and poverty and social exclusion is direct and strong throughout the world (United Nations (UN) study by Quinn and Degener on Human Rights and Disability).

There are at present seven major UN human rights instruments dealing with (1) civil and political rights (2) economic, social and cultural rights (3) elimination of discrimination against women (4) protection of the child (5) racial discrimination (6) torture and (7) the rights of migrant workers (the last one to come into force in July 2003). Little use has been made of those instruments to promote the rights of persons with disabilities. An ad hoc Committee set up by the General Assembly met in New York in the second half of June 2003 to study the need for a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

No specific mention of persons with disabilities is made in the Constitution of Mauritius. Section 16 does not forbid discrimination on the ground of disability per se, although Section 7 could be used to protect the interests of persons with disabilities when they are subjected to inhuman treatment.

Nevertheless, over the years the rights of persons with disabilities have been afforded better protection. In 1995, the Government enacted a Training and Employment of Disabled Persons Act, requiring employers of more than 35 persons to have at least three per cent of the workforce reserved for persons with disabilities. A new Mental Health Care Act was passed in 1999 to protect the rights of mental patients and to ensure better care. The Income Tax Act is reviewed regularly to increase the amounts taxpayers may deduct for disabled persons and disabled children in their care. Free medical care, hearing aids, walking sticks are given to persons with disabilities where needed. Government subsidies are granted to NGOs which cater for persons with disabilities. A National Council for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons set up by Act of Parliament in 1986 coordinates the activities of NGOs. The provisions of the Building Act are not strictly enforced. But as far as possible new buildings are equipped with facilities (entrance, lifts, toilets, parking etc.) for persons with disabilities.

Sports facilities are now available to enable persons with disabilities to participate in games specially organized for them. A campaign has been launched to enable persons with disabilities, who are victims of sexual abuse to report such cases. Persons with disabilities are given extra facilities to vote at general and local elections.

The Ministry of Social Security is now in the process of drafting a Disability Discrimination Bill which would consolidate the rights of disabled persons and consolidate their integration into society.

- The UN standard rules 1993

The UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities adopted by the General Assembly in December 1993 constitute a carefully elaborated instrument which can serve as a useful foundation on which to build a new Convention. As it has no binding force, it only purports to request Member States to apply the Rules when developing national disability programmes and to urge Member States to support, financially and otherwise, the implementation of the Rules.

The Rules may be summarised as follows :

(a) Preconditions for equal participation

Rule 1: Awareness-raising

For too long there has been little awareness of the rights and needs of persons with disabilities. Their fate has been left in the hands of private charitable organisations and NGOs, while the State had allocated more resources to cater for able bodied persons. The rules require that the State should make persons with disabilities aware of their rights while at the same time other persons should taught that persons with disabilities have the same rights and obligations as they have. The mass media should be involved in the exercise. Public education programmes should be promoted.

Rule 2: Medical care

Both preventive and curative medicine should be used. The key words are early detection, assessment and treatment of impairment. Adequate training of medical and paramedical personnel are of utmost importance.

Rule 3: Rehabilitation

Basic skills training, counselling, developing self reliance will help persons with disabilities to improve or compensate for an affected function.

Rule 4: Support services

Paragraph 2 of Rule 4 is explicit:

?States should support the development, production, distribution and servicing of assistive devices and equipment and the dissemination of knowledge about them. As far as possible they should be provided free of charge or at a low price.?

- Target areas for equal participation

Rule 5: Accessibility

(a) Access to the physical environment for persons with disabilities means accessibility to houses, buildings, public transport services and other means of transportation, streets and other outdoor environments.

(b) Access to information and communication includes availability of Braille, tape services, large prints and appropriate technologies to access spoken information for persons with auditory impairments or comprehension difficulties, including computerized information. Deaf persons should be able to benefit from sign language interpretation services.

Rule 6: Education

The education of persons with disabilities should be an integral part of the education system. In some areas special education may be necessary, while community-based programmes may also be developed.

Rule 7: Employment

The fundamental rule is that persons with disabilities must have equal opportunities for productive and gainful employment in the labour market. The possibility of earning their own living will help them to enjoy other rights. A number of measures in States? action programmes may be used to achieve this end, e.g. vocational training, incentive oriented quota schemes, reserved or designated employment, loans or grants for small business, exclusive contracts or priority production rights, tax concessions, contract compliance, financial assistance, etc.

The work environment must also be improved. Where it is not possible to integrate persons with disabilities into the work force, small units of sheltered and supported employment may be set up.

Rule 8: Income maintenance and social security

It should be the responsibility of the State to ensure adequate income support to persons with disabilities whether on a temporary or a permanent basis. Temporary measures should include incentives to restore the income earning capacity of persons with disabilities.

Rule 9: Family life and personal integrity

Opportunity must be given to persons with disabilities to experience their sexuality, have sexual relationships and bear children. They should be made aware of the possibility of sexual or other abuse, of the precautions they may take of the need to report such cases to put a stop to the abuse.

Rule 10: Culture

Participation in cultural activities will enable persons with disabilities to develop their creative, artistic and intellectual potential. Stress is laid upon the accessibility and availability of places for cultural performances and services.

Rule 11: Recreation and sports

States should ensure accessibility to the same, including the organization of special activities or games with the provision of adequate training.

Rule 12: Religion

Equal participation in the religious life of the community is a must.

-I Implementation measures

Rules 13 to 22 describe the Implementation measures to ensure equal participation in the target areas mentioned above. Such measures comprise:

(13) information and research on living conditions of persons with disabilities (gathering statistics, constituting a data bank, conducting national surveys);

(14) policy making and general development planning;

(15) legislation to enforce rights of persons with disabilities;

(16) economic policies whereby States should include disability matters in the regular budgets of all national, regional and local government bodies;

(17) coordination of work involving the establishment and strengthening of national coordinating committees;

(18) organisations of persons with disabilities should be recognized, encouraged, supported economically, given both an advisory role and a participatory role;

(19) Training of personnel involved in the planning and provision of programmes;

(20) National monitoring and evaluation of disability programmes in the implementation of the rules;

(21) Technical and economic cooperation between industrialized and developing countries with special attention to persons with disabilities; and

(22) International Cooperation within the UN, special agencies and other intergovernmental organizations.

9. The Standard Rules are not drafted in the style of an enforceable legal instrument. Although the target areas mentioned therein have to be preserved in a new Convention, civil and political rights should be included. For example not only should persons with disabilities be able to vote at elections, but they should be afforded representation in Parliament by way of reserved seats. Political parties should be encouraged to have persons with disabilities among the candidates they field. A degree of positive discrimination would be welcome. Where the legislature has a second chamber, it would be easier to reserve seats for persons with disabilities in that Chamber.

10. The Monitoring mechanism that the new Convention could provide should be more effective than the Committees of the Treaty Bodies, set up under the different UN instruments referred to in paragraph 2 above, which receive Country Reports within undue delay and whose comments are thereafter shelved, to be attended to only when the next Country Report is prepared. The Standard Rules provide for the appointment of the Special Rapporteur. To protect the rights of persons with disabilities, a closer monitoring mechanism with local Country Rapporteurs may be set up without the need for periodic Country Reports and a Committee sitting in Geneva or New York to examine such reports. Instead a Panel of Exports as proposed in the Standard Rules could be more effective to ensure rapid implementation of the new Convention. Country Rapporteurs could be the members of national human rights commissions which are the body best placed to monitor the situation.

- Conclusion

The key words used in the Standard Rules such as Elementary Care, Education, Rehabilitation, Integration, Normalization (of persons with disabilities) can only become a reality when there is participation. But participation is only possible when there is an Equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities which would raise their awareness of both their rights and obligations in society. The autonomy they would achieve will place them at the centre of decisions affecting them.

12. Persons with disabilities tend to be worse off in poorer countries. But whether a country is rich or poor, its degree of civilisation is measured by the way it treats its vulnerable groups.

Dhiraj seetulsingh