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.
