AFDO is pleased to be participating again this year in the 12th Session of the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). CoSP will be held from 11th to 13th June 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
AFDO and A4 are co-sponsoring a side event, "Leave No Autistic Mother Behind: Autism and Motherhood – Experiences, Challenges and Positive Strategies", on Thursday 13th June from 3pm – 4:15pm (New York time).
The annual conference brings together countries that have ratified the United Nations CRPD and representatives from AFDO and civil society organisations to discuss implementation of the CRPD.
The theme of this year’s CoSP is “Ensuring inclusion of persons with disabilities in a changing world through the implementation of the CRPD” and includes three sub-themes:
- Technology, digitalisation and ICTs for the empowerment and inclusion of persons with disabilities
- Social inclusion and the right to the highest attainable standard of health
- Inclusion of persons with disabilities in society through participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sports
Our delegation
AFDO will have four representatives attending CoSP this year:
- Liz Reid, AFDO President and Chairperson
- Trevor Carroll, AFDO Vice President, and International Coordinator
- Sam Drummond, Victorian Legal Aid
- Monique Blakemore, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4)
Disabled People’s International
AFDO is Australia’s representative on Disabled People’s International (DPI), a human rights organisation committed to the protection of the rights of people with disabilities and the promotion of their full and equal participation in society.
AFDO is privileged to hold the sole Australian representative vote on DPI. Our Vice President and International Representative, Trevor Carroll will be DPI’s Australian representative at CoSP this year. Trevor holds the following two positions on DPI:
- Chair of the DPI Asia-Pacific Executive
- Information Officer on the DPI World Council Executive
Australian Delegation
The Australian delegation will include representatives from the Australian Government, the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
We are looking forward to working closely with representatives from the Australian Government, and our civil society colleagues listed below:
- June Riemer, First Peoples Disability Network
- Sereako Treloggan, First Peoples Disability Network
- Alanna Julian, NSW Council for Intellectual Disability
- Courtney Bellmore, NSW Council for Intellectual Disability
- Kylee Roberts, NSW Council for Intellectual Disability
- Therese Sands, People with Disability Australia
- Paige Burton, People with Disability Australia
- Matthew Bowden, People with Disability Australia
- Emma Phillips, Queensland Advocacy Incorporated
- Kathryn Lyons, Queensland Advocacy Incorporated
- Sue Salthouse, Rights and Inclusion Australia
- Gail Mulcair, Speech Pathology Australia
- Sharynne McLeod, Speech Pathology Australia
- Santiago Velasquez Hurtado, Vision Australia
- Heidi La Paglia, Women With Disabilities Australia
- Sarah Houbolt, Women With Disabilities Australia
CoSP side-events
We will be co-sponsoring a side-event, “Leave No Autistic Mother Behind: Autism and Motherhood – Experiences, Challenges and Positive Strategies.” This side-event will be held on Thursday 13th June from 3pm – 4:15pm (New York time) and AFDO delegate – Monique Blakemore from Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4) will be participating in the side-event.
We will also be co-sponsoring a side-event with Disabled People’s International (DPI), “Digital Accessibility: strategies for disability Inclusion in E-governance platforms (Best Practices from the Global North and Global South).” This side-event will be held on Tuesday 11th June from 3pm – 4:15pm (New York time) and AFDO & DPI delegate – Trevor Carroll will be participating in this side-event.
More information on CoSP and the CRPD
You can find more information on the CRPD at the following websites:
CoSP will be webcast on UN Web TV.
We will be tweeting live from CoSP. You can follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AfdoOffice