Question

question 1

Describe a strategy you could use to assist people with disabilities to exercise their rights and suport independent action and thinking, including use of technology (such as laptops or tablets) to facilitate choice.

question 2

describe a strategy you could use to foster empowerment in a person with a disability.

question 3

identify two key elements of capacity building and give one example of how capacity building in community organisations is useful for strengthening options, networks and services for people with disability.

question 4

explain the cancept of active citizenship and what it means regarding the rights and responsibilities a person with disability.

Answer 1

Question 4:

RIGHTS:

While the most significant milestones in disability rights will be covered progressively throughout this resource, trainers are encouraged to read through the following overview to familiarise themselves with the history of the disability rights movement prior to the delivery of this training.

Year	Events
1908	The Australian Government introduced the Invalid Pension, which increased the independence of people with disability
1915 – 1945	Many soldiers returned from the First World War with impairments. With the increased numbers of people with disability, it was necessary to consider alternative forms of care other than institutionalisation. This demographic change prompted a shift towards better recognition of the needs of people with disability, resulting in the establishment of government-funded rehabilitation programs.
1945 – 1970s	The consequences of the Second World War had a similar impact and strengthened the belief that people with disability have a right to lead decent lives. Concurrently, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by United Nations General Assembly in 1948, recognising all human beings were entitled to certain fundamental rights.
1970s – 1980s	In the 1970s, there began to be a shift away from services provided to people with disability by people without disability only, to the involvement of people with disability interested in their own treatment and by extension, in their own movement.
1981	1981 was a turning point in the history of the Australian and international disability rights movements. The United Nations declared 1981 to be the International Year of Disabled Persons and Disabled Peoples International held its first World Assembly in Singapore.
1986	In 1986, disability rights advocacy was recognised as a programme area to be funded in Australia under the Disability Services Act 1986 (Cth). The Act also established standards to ensure service quality and establish a framework under which service providers were to operate.
1992	In 1992, parliament passed the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA). The Act made disability discrimination unlawful and promoted equal rights, equal opportunity and equal access for people with disability.
2007	The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened for signature on 30 March 2007, with 82 countries – including Australia – electing to become signatories to the Disability Convention. This is the highest number of signatories to a UN Convention on its opening day in history. The Disability Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.
2010	Subsequent to Australia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed the National Disability Strategy 2010-2020
2012	Twenty Years: Twenty Stories is a collection of video stories, which highlight how Australia has come a long way in recognising and respecting the rights of people with disability, however, there is still much more to be done.
2013	The scheme operates under key human rights principles such as participation, equality and empowerment and is a key step towards Australia’s implementation of Article 19 of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Living independently and being included in the community).

ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP:

Active citizenship refers to a philosophy espoused by organizations and educational institutions which advocates that members of charitable organizations, companies or nation-states have certain roles and responsibilities to society and the environment, although those members may not have specific governing roles.

QUESTION 3:

TWO KEY ELEMENTS OF CAPACITY BUILDING:

1. financial resource development

2. human resource development

One of the markers of success for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS, the Scheme) is that people with disability are increasingly engaging in the economic, social and cultural life of the community. They are becoming active citizens and active citizens are more resilient, develop support options that are more enduring and build ordinary lives strengthened by relationships, not just services. Some people with disability are already engaged in their community and leading ordinary lives. For others, capacity building supports will be crucial in enabling them to achieve this. This paper addresses the needs of people with disability who require supports with skill building and behavioural change to live an ordinary life and the role that the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA, the Agency) can play in facilitating this change. The IAC argues that capacity building within the context of the NDIS is essential to assisting people with disability move from being dependent clients to active citizens. This is based on research and an evidenced based approach Capacity building not only has great outcomes for individuals and their communities, it is critical to delivering the insurance principles of the Scheme. The sustainability of the Scheme depends upon a considered and forward thinking capacity building framework that, along with early intervention, ensures that people can live their lives to the maximum of their abilities, less dependent on the service system and benefitting from opportunities for social and economic participation. Capacity building is, however, a term and practice that covers a range of activities, many of which have been evaluated to offer little or no value, either for money or for achieving the goal of sustainably building capacity. Thus in advocating for a stronger focus in the NDIS on capacity building this paper includes an extensive review of evidence to identify the knowledge, skills and experience that will lead toward increased independence, self-management and community inclusion within the context of the Scheme and what it is planned to deliver. The paper discusses different approaches to capacity building and their relative merits including mentoring, role models, learning by doing, one off information sessions and becoming a member of an ongoing group where capacity is built by learning from people in a similar position. The IAC has particularly searched for value for money approaches that are systems based and sustainable with ongoing impact. The paper concludes that elements of an effective approach to capacity building should include multi-pronged capacity building strategies, delivered for sufficient periods of time

QUESTION 2:

STRATEGIES THAT FOSTER EMPOWERMENT WITH A DISABILITY:

Empowerment is an ideology that has emerged in reaction to inadequacies in systems of care for persons with serious mental illness. The empowerment ideology is based on the principle that psychiatric consumers can gain control over their lives, reduce their reliance on professionals, and take action on their own behalf. Empowerment can be divided into three general attributes: self-determination, social engagement, and a sense of personal competence. Scales that have been developed to assess empowerment are measures of attitudes and not direct measures of behavior; further empirical definition and validation of the empowerment concept are needed. Strategies and programs that foster empowerment include the clubhouse model of rehabilitation, self-help groups, consumers who work as providers, participatory action research, and advocacy activities. Traditional therapies may also enhance individuals' empowerment. Clinicians need to be sensitive to issues of stigma and disenfranchisement and to the social context of consumers' lives. Consumer empowerment may also be fostered by emphasizing consumer strengths and competencies and by promoting consumer involvement in services planning and delivery.

QUESTION 1:

The Commission welcomes the Government's decision to pursue a National Disability Strategy based on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Commission endorses the importance of a National Disability Strategy as part of the Government's Social Inclusion Agenda, noting that

• at present people with disability and their families face many barriers to full and equal inclusion and participation in and contribution to Australian society and
• these barriers in many cases are compounded by other sources of exclusion and disadvantage, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The Commission agrees that a National Disability Strategy should be pursued in partnership with State and Territory Governments rather than the Commonwealth alone, with the Commonwealth having however major leadership and co-ordination roles to contribute.

A National Disability Strategy should include

• development and implementation of more detailed disability strategies for all areas and levels of government, including through each Ministerial Council; each Commonwealth department and agency; and each State and Territory department and agency.
• establishment of a co-ordination mechanism and monitoring framework.
• substantially enhanced resourcing for disability representative, advocacy and advisory bodies to ensure they are able to provide the input governments will require.
• A National Disability Strategy, while able to contain some immediate measures, will in large part necessarily set a framework for further processes of policy and program development, implementation and monitoring.

This submission recommends a series of commitments to be made to further action by reference to the Articles of the Convention. These recommendations are not intended to be exhaustive as inevitably further areas for action will be identified in the course of the consultations being conducted by the Government.

Recommendations

See appendix 1 for a list of recommendations made in this submission.

Development of National Disability Strategy welcomed

We commend the Government for its decision to commence development of a National Disability Strategy.

It is clearly correct, as stated by Ministers Jenny Macklin MP and Bill Shorten MP in their Foreword to the National Disability Strategy Discussion Paper, that people with disability encounter continuing discrimination and significant systemic barriers to full inclusion and participation in Australian communities and the social, economic and cultural life of the nation. This is clear notwithstanding significant limitations in current data collection and monitoring regarding the rights of people with disability.

The Commission endorses the importance of locating a National Disability Strategy within a broader Social Inclusion Agenda, noting that the barriers which people with disability and their families face to full and equal inclusion and participation in and contribution to Australian society are in many cases compounded by other sources of exclusion and disadvantage, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Strategy based on Disability Rights Convention supported

We strongly commend the Government for its decision to pursue a National Disability Strategy based on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The rapid movement by the Government to ratify the Convention in July this year was welcomed by the Human Rights Commissioner, in common with disability community representative, advocacy and advisory bodies. We emphasise again, as the Human Rights Commissioner did in evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, that

Ratification of this Convention is not a statement that Australia already fully complies with the Convention in practice. Rather the Convention presents an agenda for action and gives new opportunities for accountability for how well rights are respected.

The Convention (Article 4.1(a)) commits parties

to adopt all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention.

We submit that a National Disability Strategy offers the opportunity and responsibility to establish comprehensive strategies, frameworks and measures to ensure that the human rights of people with disability in Australia are

• respected (that is, governments and their agents not acting inconsistently with human rights);
• protected (that is, governments acting effectively to ensure that other organisations and individuals do not act inconsistently with human rights and that there are effective remedies for any instances of violations which occur); and
• fulfilled (that is, where government needs to take positive actions to ensure the realisation of human rights in practice those positive actions are taken).

Even in relation to civil and political rights, which attract immediate compliance obligations under this Convention and under the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applicable to Australia since 1980, it is clear that very substantial work is needed before it could be said that for people with disability in Australia these rights are fully and equally respected, protected and fulfilled.

In relation to economic, social and cultural rights it is also clear that the Convention presents a very substantial agenda for action by governments and for change in Australian society more broadly.

In our view the Convention provides a much clearer framework for the direction of social change required to ensure that human rights for people with disability in Australia are protected, respected and fulfilled than has been previously available, including through pre-existing human rights instruments.

Inevitably, any international agreement requires processes of translation into strategies for implementation in the circumstances of each nation.

Similarly, although the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in our view goes further than any previous human rights instrument in providing guidance on measures which should be adopted or considered in turning rights into realities, further and detailed processes of development and implementation of appropriate strategies remain essential. The words of the Convention, developed with very substantial Australian input and unprecedented participation by disability community representatives, point the way to the next steps now to be determined.

In August this year, Minister Shorten and Mr McClelland the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, together with the Human Rights Commissioner, the Queensland Attorney-General, and academic, government and disability community experts, joined to launch the “Human Rights Indicators for People with Disability” resource developed by the leading disability community advocacy organisation Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, through an extensive process of research and consultation.

In our view this resource, while being very closely based on the terms of the Convention, provides exceptionally valuable guidance in translating a human rights instrument negotiated internationally into measures to be developed, adopted and monitored domestically. Accordingly we recommend that all parties involved in development of the National Disability Strategy from this point and of implementation measures as part of that Strategy become familiar with the Human Rights Indicators framework developed by QAI.