DPA New Zealand

DPA Bites – May 2008

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

DPA believes that it has a responsibility to participate in the international community on behalf of New Zealanders who have disabilities to ensure involvement in sharing of new developments and to promote its aims.

The UN Convention has come into force!

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force on May 3 meaning that it is legally binding on all countries that have signed up to it.

This is a major milestone.

"The Convention coming into force is fantastic for the world’s 650 million disabled people" says Gary Williams, DPA CEO.

"In keeping with New Zealand’s leadership in the Convention process, we look forward to our country ratifying it before the end of the year."

The Convention became international law 30 days after Ecuador was the 20th country to ratify it on 3rd April. Around another 100 countries, including New Zealand, have signed the Convention, but have yet to ratify it. Once New Zealand ratifies it later this year, it will then be legally bound to observe it.

DPA is now looking ahead to the specific issues around implementation, and, as a result, you should see some significant changes. Some changes have already been put in place, due largely to the activities of organisations such as DPA.

For example, in 2006 sign language was adopted as New Zealand’s official third language. Last year legislation was repealed that exempted sheltered workshops from employment rights legislation.

All large residential institutions for people with learning disabilities have now been closed but these are being replaced with mini-institutions. The Convention requires people to be supported and living in the community.

There are certainly many more challenges ahead, but the Convention should effectively serve as the benchmark for future standards and action.

To find out more about the Convention go to www.un.org/disabilities

DPA jointly wins US $50,000 grant

DPA and its partners, People First, and CCS Disability Action, have been awarded a US $50,000 grant as part of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award.

In her announcement of the grant, Hon Ruth Dyson, Minister of Disability Issues said, "It's great to see disabled people and service providers working together and supporting each other to make a more inclusive society."

The 2007 Roosevelt Award was granted to New Zealand for its achievements in promoting an inclusive society where disabled people are valued and can fully participate. Non-government disability organisations in New Zealand were then invited to apply for the grant, which is part of the Award.

DPA, People First and CCS Disability Action will use the funding in two main ways. Firstly, it will help make everyone in New Zealand more aware of the UN Convention through an initiative called "UN Convention – Our Treaty".

Secondly, young New Zealanders will be a big focus too. Some of the money will be used to help them better understand the rights of disabled people, and to better understand the needs of people who may be different to them. This initiative will be called "Diversity, Our Future".

"UN Convention – Our Treaty" will tell the story of "Our Treaty" in relevant and engaging ways through newspaper and radio advertising and an interactive website. As a result, dates such as International Day of Disabled Persons, will become well anchored in peoples’ minds. Government agencies will be actively involved too.

"Diversity, Our Future" messages, along the lines of the "know me before you judge me" campaign, will reach young people using contemporary communication methods. Education in schools will play a big part too. Learnings from current projects will be well utilized, these include "Our Stories" and "Diversity Challenge" and the new curriculum to create "schools as human rights communities".

The overall objective is to create a diversity education programme, using disabled people as the teachers.

The "UN Convention, Our Future" and "Diversity Our Future" initiatives will help show that New Zealand is unified, diverse and fully inclusive – a society that highly values all lives and continually enhances our full participation. It is hoped that they will continue beyond the expenditure of the initial grant through competition and sponsorship.

Violence is not okay – for anyone!

DPA supports action to eliminate violence towards women within the home or community.

DPA and the National Network for Stopping Violence Services (NNSVS) have together created the Disability Coalition Against Violence.

"We have long been disturbed by the level of violence towards disabled people. It doesn't really get mentioned in the media and disabled people are not always protected in the same way as the non-disabled population." Says Wendi Wicks, DPA Policy Researcher.

"We saw that anti-violence activism was happening in a variety of ways by different groups, but there was no central coordination. The needs of disabled people were often being ignored. For example DPA is not involved in change-orientated communities such as Te Reto, the New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy. That is why we decided to initiate discussions with NNSVS so we could pool resources and make a real difference through direct action. The result is an effective team in which disabled people play a key role."

"We also identified that we needed to provide training for support workers for both disabled people and for victims of domestic violence. The training would help equip the support workers to recognise possible incidences of domestic violence and advise them what to do about it, including how to get refuge. Luckily we have got permission to adapt an effective training resource from Australia, however we first need to get funding to enable us to do this."

"Another big issue that we face is that disabled people are not covered by all the areas of the Domestic Violence Act. For example in situations where family members are caring for disabled relatives and are being paid for it, the relationship is not treated the same as if there was no payment involved. In addition, the police do not record, as a matter of course, if people are disabled, which means that accurate data is not collected. Basically we want to change law, policy and practice!"

Since the Disability Coalition Against Violence was created, DPA and NNSVS have been joined by other disabled advocates including CCS Disability Action, People First and Age Concern.

NEWS

National Executive Committee meeting outcomes

The National Executive Committee (NEC) met in Christchurch in February. Here is a summary of the outcomes of the meeting.

Updating Our Vision

DPA's Our Vision is a critical tool in lobbying the government and it is about to be updated, ready for the upcoming General Election.

Our Vision helps ensure that the Government involves us in the decision-making process, especially when it comes to putting the New Zealand Disability Strategy into action – nothing about us, without us.

In the update, we will include the need to implement the UN International Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, clarification of expectations around disability support services and employment education and income.

Gary Williams, DPA CEO, says Our Vision will be an extremely valuable tool, both at a local and at a national level. "Disabled people should use Our Vision to lobby their local electoral candidates, councils and business groups, with the view of effecting real change. They could also use it to help them compare the values and promises of the different political parties."

The existing version, for 2005-2008, can be viewed online at www.dpa.org.nz. The regions will be contacted by the National Secretariat over the next few months to provide input. If you have an issue of national significance that you would like considered for inclusion in the update contact Gary Williams.

The updated version will cover the period 2009-2012 and will be published in August. Readers of Bite will receive a copy and it will also be on the DPA website.

Annual General Meeting & Conference

It's confirmed, the 2008 AGM together with the two-yearly Conference will be held in Christchurch at the Latimer Hotel from Friday October 10 to Sunday October 12.

New publications editor

DPA Bites has a new publications editor, Jenny Douché. Jenny created the Smarter than Jack series of animal books in 2001, which raised over $440,000 for animal charities around the world. The business was sold earlier this year giving Jenny time to spend with her 18 month-old son (there's another on the way too) and time to work with organisations such as DPA.

Congratulations

DPA congratulates: