News
The Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in collaboration with the Council for World Mission (CWM) and International Disability Alliance (IDA) hosted a two-day seminar on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Dr Samuel Kabue, executive secretary of EDAN, and Victoria Lee, IDA human rights officer, spoke at the seminar, held 22-23 October in Kingston, Jamaica.
Rev. Norbert Stephens, general secretary of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, welcomed the group and offered prayers. Rev. Dr Gordon Cowans, EDAN Caribbean coordinator, welcomed participants who represented non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including organizations advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities, quasi-government institutions and churches.
Rev. Gary Harriot, general secretary of the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC), reaffirmed the interdenominational body’s commitment to advocacy, stating “JCC affirms your work in advancing the cause of our sisters and brothers who are disabled, even as you pave the way for those of us who will become disabled in the future. I was personally moved by the experience I had in having a fellowship with members of the EDAN community at the last WCC Assembly in South Korea and continue to be challenged by its work and vision”.
He spoke of the rights of those living with disabilities and challenged the church to envision a great future in which all facilities of churches in Jamaica and their ministries were welcoming to persons with disabilities.
Karen Francis, CWM regional secretary, said that “as a family in CWM we are committed to working to enable life-affirming communities.” She referred to the words of former CWM programme secretary Rev. Randolph Turner: “Life-affirming communities are essential to the restoration of shalom and justice within the entirety of God’s creation. As such we believe that, among other things, life-affirming communities are inclusive communities. Inclusive communities affirm the gifts of persons with disabilities, pushing boundaries of our created norms to ensure that their rights in society and their gifts and abilities find expression and authentic places in the church community.”
The participants were encouraged to press on in the role of advocacy in becoming the voice of the voiceless and ensuring that the church and society become all-embracing communities.
In a highly interactive series of sessions, the international facilitators led nearly 40 participants into a deeper understanding of the opportunities for advocacy, using the UN Convention as a springboard. Kabue and Lee presented the historical context and creation of the convention, and expounded on its guiding principles. Specific articles were explicated using the grounding of the guiding principles.
Participants benefited greatly from the frank, experience-based sharing on the processes and procedures adopted by the Convention Committee and the number of opportunities for organizations to participate in advocacy work at the international level in an effort to influence positive initiatives by state parties.
There was an expressed renewed commitment to collaborate at the national level among NGOs. All agreed to access the myriad opportunities to pursue the rights of persons with disabilities using the convention as the primary instrument but also appreciating the value of other conventions in advancing the cause.
Participants agreed that there was a wealth of useful information shared and confessed a keener sense of possibilities provided to pursue the advocacy challenge. A plan of action for a collaborative effort to pursue advocacy for the government to make its report to the UN Committee of Experts was agreed upon.
