New perspectives on Peru's National Plan on Equality of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities

Statement presented by Kerry Brinkert, Director of the Implementation Support Unit, at the EU-sponsored workshop on victim assistance in Lima, Peru, 24 April 2013.

Peru is a leader in two movements of great importance.

These two movements share a common agenda:

The States Parties to the Ottawa Convention have expressed, through their adoption of the Cartagena Action Plan in 2009, their resolve “to provide adequate age- and gender-sensitive assistance to mine victims.”[2]

How?

They are resolved to do so “through a holistic and integrated approach that includes emergency and continuing medical care, physical rehabilitation, psychological support, and social and economic inclusion in accordance with applicable international humanitarian and human rights law.”[3]

In the Cartagena Action Plan, Peru and the other States Parties also expressed that what they refer to as landmine victim assistance “should be integrated into broader national policies, plans and legal frameworks related to disability, health, education, employment, development and poverty reduction, while placing particular emphasis on ensuring that mine victims have access to specialised services when needed and can access on an equal basis services available to the wider population.”[4]

That is, Peru has accepted that efforts to fulfil their promise to landmine survivors shall be undertaken, for logical reasons, in the context of broader frameworks, including those that aim to ensure that differently abled persons have equal opportunities.

This is natural given that most individuals who survive the detonation of an anti-personnel mine are going to live with what the preamble to the CRPD calls an “impairment.”[5]

As such, they will interact with “attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”[6]

As UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay stated in December, “when survivors of mines and other explosive devices acquire a disability, they fall under the scope of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”[7]

Therefore, to achieve the aims of one of the landmark multilateral treaties that Peru has accepted means achieving the aims of the other. This workshop is intended to assist with this process.

With CONTRAMINAS AND CONADIS, Peru has established State structures to oversee the implementation of the Ottawa Convention and the CRPD, respectively.

With this workshop, CONTRAMINAS and CONADIS, along with other State institutions, Peruvians with disabilities, and international partners, have an opportunity to ensure that there is an efficiency and effectiveness to Peru’s efforts to promote the participation of women, girls, boys and men with disabilities, including landmine survivors in Peru’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural spheres with equal opportunities.

The Implementation Support Unit is proud to support Peru’s efforts.

We are also grateful that the European Union, through its Council Decision in support of the implementation of the Cartagena Action Plan, has provided the financial resources necessary to allow for this support.

We are pleased to play a small role in assisting Peru in seizing the opportunity to revise its National Plan on Equality of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, and to do so in a way that ensures “active participation of persons with disabilities, including children and women with disabilities, in planning, executing, and monitoring” of the plan.[8]

We encourage Peru in particular to establish clear and measurable objectives. This is important to ensure that the implementation of plan may in fact be monitored and assessed.

This is also important to send a signal to the international community of Peru’s seriousness, thus providing a sound basis for resource mobilization. After all, both the Ottawa Convention and the CRPD are explicit in recognizing the importance of international cooperation.[9]

However, as demonstrated by Peru’s efforts to date to implement both treaties, Peru knows full well that it remains the responsibility of each State Party to fulfill its obligations under Ottawa Convention and the CRPD.

The process to revise its National Plan on Equality of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities is another manifestation of national responsibility.

The real test of national ownership, though, will come with the implementation of a revised plan.

Persons with disabilities in Peru, including landmine survivors, no doubt naturally have high expectations. 

We are confident, however, that Peru is on the right path and that in due course Peru will be able to demonstrate real progress towards the goal of the full inclusion and effective participation of all persons with disabilities, including landmine survivors, in the social cultural, economic and political lives of their communities.