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	The ICC is working to uphold human rights and dignity by International Criminal Court (ICC)   On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), naming the ''inherent dignity'' and the ''equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family'' as the ''foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world''. This ground-breaking text laid out rights that apply regardless of race, religion, gender or socio-economic status.   Since then, the international community has been striving to implement these ideals in a concrete way, adopting various legal instruments to this effect.   The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), adopted in 1998, reflects the values of the UDHR, and the ICC''s activities serve to defend some of the essential rights enumerated by the Declaration. The ICC has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, meaning that it can investigate and prosecute, for instance, violations of the right to life and liberty and violations of the prohibition of torture and slavery.   By creating an international criminal court of last resort to deliver justice when national systems are unwilling or unable genuinely to do so, the Rome Statute aims at providing a consistent and comprehensive answer against impunity for the most serious international crimes.   The ICC is now in its 13th year of existence and has never been busier. 122 States have ratified the Rome Statute - almost two-thirds of the world''s sovereign nations. The ICC''s caseload is constantly expanding and breaking new ground. Final convictions were issued this year against individuals for attacking and killing civilians and the use of child soldiers. Almost 10,000 victims have been represented in proceedings and over 110,000 have been assisted by the Trust Fund for Victims.   As such, the ICC''s activities are having a significant impact not just on individuals prosecuted before the Court, but also on the tens of thousands of direct victims and millions of people in the affected communities and societies.   The ICC is thus truly helping to realise the UDHR''s vision by ending impunity, preventing future crimes and providing justice to victims. This mission would however be better fulfilled if all States ratified the Rome Statute, thereby allowing it to achieve true universality.   Human Rights Day is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the progress that has been achieved since the adoption of the UDHR; but also on what remains to be done. In the wake of WWII, the Universal Declaration was drafted by visionaries.   As one of the most recent additions to the mechanisms that seek to make this vision a reality, the ICC is helping to uphold human rights and dignity, and to deliver a credible promise of greater respect for and adherence to human rights everywhere.   ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, launches Policy on Sexual & Gender-Based Crimes: Ensuring victims have a voice in court today can prevent these crimes tomorrow #EndSexualViolence   On December 7th at the United Nations in New York, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court"), Fatou Bensouda, hosted an event to mark the launch of her Office''s Policy on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes and to stress the need to end impunity for such egregious crimes.   Sexual and gender-based crimes take place in conflict zones around the world with alarming intensity and frequency.   "It is my duty as ICC Prosecutor to challenge the culture of impunity that allows sexual and gender-based crimes against girls and women in conflict and peace-time, to persist," said Prosecutor Bensouda.   The Policy, the first and most comprehensive of its kind adopted by an international institution, aims to strengthen the Office''s capacity to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes falling within the Court''s jurisdiction in a systematic and comprehensive manner, and to enhance the integration of a gender perspective and expertise in all aspects of operations.   The Office''s Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes is the product of extensive consultations, including with relevant agencies of the UN, States Parties to the ICC, civil society and academia.   "To date", said the Prosecutor, "the Court has charged 17 individuals implicated in our cases with gender related crimes, whilst specific charges of sexual violence were proffered in 70 per cent of our cases. These high numbers illustrate the prevalence of such horrific acts. They also highlight the commitment to hold the perpetrators of such crimes accountable, and in the process, to send a strong message that the culture of impunity for such crimes will be met with the full force of the law. We will continue on this path."   Prosecutor Bensouda stressed that unified action must be taken at both the national and international level by all relevant actors.   "We must relentlessly pursue accountability, domestically and internationally and send a clear, strong, and consistent message that in this new era of international criminal justice, sexual and gender-based crimes are serious crimes, which will neither be tolerated nor ignored," she said.   "The victims of such devastating crimes will not find solace in our words and promises, but in what we manage to deliver in concrete terms. We must end sexual and gender-based crimes."   The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC conducts independent and impartial investigations and prosecution of the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Office of the Prosecutor is currently conducting eight investigations: Uganda; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, Sudan; Central African Republic; Kenya; Libya; Côte d''Ivoire and Mali. The Office is also conducting preliminary examinations relating to the situations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Nigeria and Ukraine. Visit the related web page
	People with disabilities, their rights cannot be ignored by OHCHR, Human Rights Watch   Feb 2015   Rights of persons with disabilities must be fully included in the new development framework state UN experts.   “One billion people – 15 per cent of the world’s population – are persons with disabilities, and their rights cannot be ignored,” a group of United Nations human rights experts has warned today. Their call comes as the Second Session of International Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda closes this week in New York.   “No one should be left behind if we want to ensure a fully inclusive society for all,” they said, urging international negotiators and all UN Member States to firmly include the human rights of persons with disabilities in the new development framework.   The 17 new post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in September 2015, will replace and expand the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and will frame agendas and policies for the next 15 years. The Outcome Document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which will take place in July 2015 in Addis Ababa, is an agreement on policies and financing. It will be key in the implementation of the post-2015 agenda.   “The inclusion of persons with disabilities in the SDGs is fundamental if we are to achieve sustainable development that is genuinely rights-based. This commitment must also be reflected in the Financing for Development Outcome Document,” said the new UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas Aguilar.   “Whereas people with disabilities were invisible within the MDGs, we have seen promising advances in ensuring that the new development framework is sustainable, inclusive and accessible,” Ms. Devandas Aguilar said.   The expert noted that, “as we enter the critical final stages of negotiations on the new SDGs, it is imperative that we maintain the important achievements already attained and that the global community fulfils its promise to guarantee human rights and development for all on an equal basis, including for persons with disabilities.”   A key issue for many people with disabilities is food security. Worldwide, an estimated 805 million people are chronically undernourished. Since many persons with disabilities live in absolute poverty, these two large populations overlap to a considerable extent, making food security of utmost importance.   “We know that nutrition and disability are closely linked. Both children and adults are often discriminated against, due to social stigma and negative cultural norms,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, said.   States are particularly responsible for making sure that vulnerable and marginalised people, including those with disabilities, are able to access adequate and nutritious food, she said.   “Food must be physically and economically accessible,” Ms Elver added. “To achieve this, States must ensure that a disability perspective is taken fully into account in nutrition policy and programming, maternal and child health policy, and broader health initiatives.”   The new UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, called on Member States to give particular attention to the situation of older persons with disabilities in the current negotiations.   “Although disability should not be associated with ageing, it is frequent in old age and thus requires resources to ensure access to different services, including education, healthcare and social protection and poverty reduction programmes”, she pointed out.   “An age-sensitive approach should be incorporated in the new development framework to enable all persons with disabilities, including older persons, to fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, Ms. Kornfeld-Matte emphasized.   “The scope of the post-2105 development goals and the Financing for Development Outcome Document provides a unique opportunity to ensure persons with disabilities are not just more visible, but are also active participants in the global agenda, and it is an opportunity that should not be missed,” the three experts concluded.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disability/SRDisabilities/Pages/SRDisabilitiesIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/FoodIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/OlderPersons/IE/Pages/IEOlderPersons.aspx   The right to live in the community for persons with disabilities. (Human Rights Watch)   Thank you for the opportunity to submit our comments in advance of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) study on the right to live in the community for persons with disabilities. Human Rights Watch welcomes and strongly supports the OHCHR’s interest in examining the right to live in the community for persons with disabilities.   This submission is based on research and advocacy conducted by Human Rights Watch Russia, Ghana, Croatia, Peru, and India, in particular our reports: Barriers Everywhere: Lack of Accessibility for People with Disabilities in Russia (September 2013), “Like a Death Sentence”: Abuses against Persons with Mental Disabilities in Ghana” (October 2012), and “Once You Enter, You Never Leave”: Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Intellectual or Mental Disabilities in Croatia (September 2010), and our ongoing monitoring of the right to live in the community for persons with disabilities. We highlight areas of concern and good practices in implementation of article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), focusing on the following issues:   Legal reforms; Access to the environment and services to enable independent living and inclusion in the community; Scope of deinstitutionalization plans; Good practices of living independently in the community and community participation; Data about living in the community.   This document underscores several concerns that figured most prominently in our research, and that significantly influenced the degree to which persons with disabilities are able to exercise their right to live in the community. It does not attempt to review every aspect of this right.   1. Legal Reforms   Article 19 of the CRPD calls for governments to “recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and shall take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community.”   One of the key challenges in upholding article 19 is the continued denial of legal capacity for people with disabilities. Legal capacity or the right to make one’s own decisions is closely linked with the right to live in the community with equal choices to others. While article 12 of the CRPD sets out that all persons with disabilities shall “enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life,” many countries around the world continue to have incapacity and guardianship laws or practices that strip people with disabilities of their legal capacity, endowing a guardian, or simply a relative, doctor, or judge with the right to make their decisions.   This denial or restriction of legal capacity can mean persons with disabilities no longer have the choice of or control over whether to live in the community, thereby effectively stripping them of their right under article 19 of the CRPD to “choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live.”   Denial of legal capacity can result in a guardian making the decision to institutionalize a person with a disability.   For example, in Croatia, guardians have the right to make the decision on where and with whom people stripped of legal capacity can live. A guardian can choose, against the will of the individual and without a court’s approval, to institutionalize an individual, place them in foster family for adults, or community housing.   In Croatia, even when individuals do consent to living in an institution or adult foster home, that individual would have little choice regarding the type of service received – an integral part of the right to live in the community.   Despite ongoing reforms to deinstitutionalize persons with disabilities in Croatia, people with disabilities living in institutions who have been stripped of their legal capacity still require the consent of their guardian to leave the institution or facility and move into the community.   In Ghana, individuals with psychosocial disabilities are routinely institutionalized against their will by family members or the police, and denied the opportunity to oppose or appeal their confinement.   Ghana’s Mental Health Act of 2012 maintains a guardianship program that strips legal capacity from individuals with psychosocial disabilities, and also contains provisions that allow for the institutionalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities without their consent.   Similarly, in India, the Mental Health Act of 1987 allows a family member or guardian to admit a relative to an institution without their consent or any judicial review for up to 90 days at a time. The police also detain people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities found wandering the streets if they have reason to believe them to be “dangerous” or incapable of taking care of themselves. These individuals are then admitted to these institutions through court orders with little possibility to appeal the decision. They are unable to leave the institution and can often stay there for life if no family member comes to take them home.   To ensure the right to live in the community, governments are obligated not only to recognize the right to legal capacity for all persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others but also provide accommodations and access to support with decision-making, where necessary, to exercise it. Legal reforms should also establish the right to live in the community, in line with the CRPD, with time-bound plans for establishing community-based living arrangements and support.   2. Access to the environment and services to enable independent living   For people with disabilities to participate fully and live independently in society, governments should strengthen or develop inclusive and accessible services. An integrated, holistic approach to such services should take into account the many aspects of people’s lives to enable people with disabilities to enjoy full inclusion in their communities.   As one Moscow-based disability rights activist told Human Rights Watch, “Accessibility is a chain. If one link doesn’t work, then the whole thing doesn’t work.”   The CRPD obligates governments to ensure “community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with disabilities and are responsive to their needs.”   Barriers to the physical environment, transportation, employment, and health care isolate persons with disabilities and prevent them from living in an inclusive community. Inaccessibility to the outside world is a key component of persons with disabilities not having access to community living.   Human Rights Watch research in Russia uncovered numerous barriers to living in the community for persons with disabilities. People with disabilities that we interviewed throughout Russia encountered inaccessible housing, government buildings, private businesses, healthcare facilities, and public spaces such as street crossings and sidewalks. In the most serious cases, people were almost completely confined to their homes due to a lack of basic accommodations to allow them to enter and exit their apartments and apartment buildings, many of which were buildings owned and maintained by city governments.   Such confinement of people with physical disabilities to their homes severely limits their possibilities to work, go to school, obtain necessary medical or other services, socialize, or attend cultural events.   Those who are able to leave their homes more easily face other obstacles in public spaces – such as stairs, narrow doorways, or cars parked in front of accessible entrances – preventing them from fully participating in society and participating in even the most basic daily tasks, such as going to the grocery store. People with disabilities also face barriers in accessing the transportation services provided in various cities throughout Russia.   For example, not every Russian city has accessible buses. Similar problems of inaccessible infrastructure exist in countries around the world and are not unique to Russia.   Inability to access healthcare and rehabilitation facilities and services in the community can also interfere with a person’s right to live in the community, pressuring persons with disabilities to depend on institutional living to ensure access to appropriate health care. Our research indicated that the obstacles to obtaining health care in the community in Russia include difficulty in accessing healthcare clinics and diagnostic equipment and a lack of rehabilitation facilities and specialists in or near communities. People with sensory disabilities lack access to emergency services and face difficulty in making appointments.   In Croatia, the social protection system works to undermine the right of people with disabilities to choose community-based housing. In particular people with disabilities who pursue a full-time job are ineligible for community-based housing.   Access to health care in the community also is a challenge for many persons with disabilities who choose to live in the community, with persons with intellectual disabilities living in the community usually having to go to see doctors at an institution. The Croatian Ombudswoman for Persons with Disabilities has documented that not even minimal progress has been made in development of outpatient treatment and improving the quality of health care for people with psychosocial disabilities in the community, which leads to multiple hospitalizations.   Croatia’s personal assistance program that is designed to help persons with disabilities in their home, to facilitate participation in the community and help with financial matters, continues to benefit only persons with severe physical disabilities.   Article 19 of the CRPD requires governments to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and to participate and be included fully in their communities, including by guaranteeing their right to access services and facilities available to the general population on an equal basis with others. Without equal access to services and facilities, persons with disabilities have a more difficult time living in the community.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/26/human-rights-watch-submission-office-high-commissioner-human-rights http://www.hrw.org/topic/disability-rights http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/en/ida-disability-rights-bulletin Visit the related web page
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