UN
Talks
Disabilities,
Still No
Bulletin on
Accessibility,
Media
Banned from GA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 20
-- For this UN
General
Assembly week,
one of
the "High
Level Events"
is on
Disabilities
and
Development.
Inner City
Press on Friday
asked what if
anything UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
done on the
"Bulletin on
Accessibility"
which his
spokesperson
told Inner
City Press two
months ago was
being
worked on.
UN
official
Daniela Bas
said she could
not answer for
Ban, but that
her
department,
DESA, has
given all of
its views and
recommendation
and
now it's up to
the senior
level people
to formulate.
It all seems a
bit slow, and
contrary to
the UN's
claims for its
high level
event.
For
example, the
UN has had a
billion dollar
peacekeeping
mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo for
a decade or
more, but DRC
has
not even
signed, much
less ratified,
the
Disabilities
Convention.
The
same is true,
though more
understandable,
in Somalia and
South Sudan.
This
comes while it
is still
UNclear if the
US would grant
a visa to
Sudan's
president,
because he is
indicted by
the
International
Criminal
Court, of
which the US
is not a
member.
The
US has not
ratified the
Disabilities
Convention (it
received only
61
of the needed
66 votes in
the US Senate
in December),
but Bas told
Inner City
Press that the
US government
has conducted
"walk-throughs"
to
make sure that
Monday's event
is accessible.
What
will NOT be
accessible to
the press this
coming week is
the General
Assembly Hall,
where Monday's
event will be
held. In
previous years
there have
been seats for
the media in
the back of
the GA Hall.
But
this year,
while
delegations
have had their
number of
seats reduced,
the media has
been
eliminated.
The
Free UN
Coalition for
Access @FUNCA_info has
fought this
and will
continue to.
FUNCA thanked
Friday's
speakers for
coming; Bas
said she used
to be a
journalist and
appreciates
"hard
questions."
There will be
more. Watch
this site.
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