Friday Fax Relay – UN Disabilities Negotiation/Right-to-Die
FRIDAY FAX February 4, 2005 Volume 8, Number 7 Controversy Surrounds UN Disabilities Negotiation Today the United Nations closes the fifth in a series of two-week drafting sessions intended to produce an internationally binding convention on the rights and protection of people with disabilities. Despite mounting pressure to finalize the text, which the UN has been drafting since mid-2002, much controversial work remains. UN negotiators addressed only a fraction of the overall draft, and most of the language that pro-lifers find troublesome remains in the document. Among the most controversial passages is an article that pro-life advocates believe grants a right to die. The text makes illegal all "medical or related interventions," possibly including life-saving nutrition and hydration, carried out without the "free and informed consent" of the person concerned or his legal representative. Interventions without prior consent may only be carried out if they are in the "best interests" of the person concerned. A spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee addressed the drafting group to ask for the removal of this language, saying the language "would also prevent life saving interventions for persons attempting suicide." According to a statement issued by a pro-life coalition at the conference, the "best-interests" exception is also hazardous because it "allows a very subjective judgment to govern whether or not a person with disabilities should live, and would not protect the disabled person from assisted suicide or euthanasia." Another point of contention is an article requiring that the disabled must have the "means necessary" to exercise their "reproductive rights." Among other states, Colombia objected to this language because UN enforcement committees define "reproductive rights" as synonymous with abortion. On ongoing problem is definitional as it is not yet clear which groups will fall under the convention. There is no definition of "disability" and no groups are currently excluded from the convention. In contrast, the Americans with Disabilities Act specifically excludes "homosexuality and bisexuality" and "transvestitism, transsexualism, pedophilia." Despite its possible application to these groups, some countries, including New Zealand and the EU, strongly supported this language. Several countries expressed concern that the convention should not create new rights that have not previously been agreed upon in internationally binding legal documents. The Holy See said that "our purpose here is not to create new rights, nor to diminish the existing rights of persons with disabilities, but rather to preserve the human rights of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others." The UN is set to resume drafting the convention from August 8-19, 2005. Copyright 2004 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required. Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427 New York, New York 10017 Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291 E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org
John Bambenek is the Assistant Politics Editor for Blogcritics and is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. He is a freelance columnist who blogs at Part-Time Pundit and the executive director of The Tumaini Foundation which helps AIDS orphans and other children in Tanzania to get an education. He is the current owner of BlogSoldiers, a blog-only traffic exchange. | More from John Bambenek
Stumble It!
