Understanding the CRPD in the Context of Climate Risks and Emergencies

As recognized in both the preamble to the Paris Agreement and the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. This includes both rapid-onset and extreme weather emergencies fueled by climate change, such as floods or hurricanes, and the slow-onset consequences of disruptions to the climate, such as the gradual increase in temperature or reduced availability of food and water. These disparate impacts of climate change for the disability community are not inevitable; rather, they result from the failure of climate adaptation and disaster risk readiness policies to strengthen the adaptive capacity of persons with disabilities and learn from them. These challenges are felt most acutely by the disability community in developing countries, as well as groups that are affected by intersecting forms of systemic discrimination, such as women, minorities, indigenous peoples, and children with disabilities. The impact of this reality shows the gap between the promises of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the actual actions taken by States according to its mandates, particularly those contained in Article 11. As the world moves forward with tackling the climate crisis, governments must develop and implement climate solutions that engage and empower persons with disabilities, respect, protect, and fulfill their human rights in adaptation planning, and ensure their resilience to climate change.

HPOD's upcoming panel event "The Disability Rights Obligations of States in the Context of Climate Risks and Emergencies," sponsored by the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Colombia, Chile, and Spain, will focus on the duties of states in the Inter-American System of Human Rights towards persons with disabilities in light of the global climate emergency. The CRPD has special relevance for not only the various countries of the Americas, all but one of which have ratified this treaty, but also for the regional human rights system, which has striven to harmonize regional disability rights standards with the CRPD. This event, co-organized with the Universidad de los Andes Law School's Programa de Acción por la Igualdad y la Inclusión Social (PAIIS); the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme, housed at the McGill Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism; as well as ONG Inclusiva, an organization of persons with disabilities based in Chile, will help to elevate the voices of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations on the current impact of climate change on the rights of persons with disabilities, and to identify the opportunities, challenges, and good practices for promoting disability inclusion in the context of climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts, so as to advance disability-inclusive climate adaptation in the lead up to the next conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

Scheduled to take place in person on Wednesday, June 12th, from 10:00-11:15 AM EDT, as part of the 17th Conference of States Parties to the CRPD (COSP17), this panel event is particularly relevant given COSP17's thematic focus on persons with disabilities in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' progress towards adopting a general comment on Article 11, as well as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' deliberations following a joint request by the governments of Colombia and Chile for an advisory opinion on the scope of states' international human rights obligations to confront to the ongoing global climate crisis, in which HPOD, together with PAIIS and DICARP, presented one of over 200 submissions the Court has received from civil society to educate the Court on the unique intersections of disability human rights and climate justice.

The event will be livestreamed on the United Nations' WebTV platform. We are also offering live captions in the Zoom Webinar for this event.

Event Program

Inauguration

•    Call to order by the event chair, H.E. Luis Gallegos, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of the Republic of Ecuador & former Ambassador of Ecuador to the United Nations  

Introduction

•    Opening remarks by Anderson Henao, Director for the Guarantee of the the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Equality, Colombia
•    Opening remarks by Daniel Concha, National Director, National Disability Service (Senadis), Chile

Panel Discussion

•    Juliana Bustamante (PAIIS, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) - The Disability Rights Obligations of States in the Context of the Climate Emergency
•    Carlos Kaiser (ONG Inclusiva, Chile) - Disability-Inclusive Responses to Climate Change in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities
•    Pamela Molina (Executive Director, World Federation of the Deaf) - States’ Human Rights Obligations with Respect to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons in the Context of the Climate Emergency
•    Kirstin Lange (Programme Specialist on Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action, UNICEF) - States’ Human Rights Obligations with Respect to Children with Disabilities in the Context of the Climate Emergency
•    Hezzy Smith (Director of Advocacy Initiatives, HPOD) - The Role of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in Promoting Disability-Inclusive Climate Action

Question & Answer

Questions and interventions from the floor, moderated by the event chair, H.E. Luis Gallegos

Conclusion

•    Concluding remarks by Ambassador Ana Jiménez de la Hoz, Deputy Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations