“It’s my bible …”

15 years ago Understanding the CRPD was launched: an ebook on the human rights of persons with disabilities, with an ardent readership that has made its way into UN Reports, Commentaries & other unexpected places.

Readers have shared how immensely helpful they find it, including the repeated feedback “this is my ‘bible’”, and in one wonderful incident someone referred me to it in response to a question I posed to a panel.

It is heartening that it has been so generously received; it is now available in various languages, including French, Chinese and in parts Russian, Arabic & Serbian – the latter thanks to the late Dr Damjan Tatic.

Initially, Alexandre Cote (then HI) approached me in February 2007, following the adoption of the treaty at Cluster Munition Conference in Vienna. He suggested that a background note be prepared for a training in Belgrade later that year, which should bring together the treaty text & the suggestions made by civil society during the negotiations. Having drafted the negotiation reports for International Service for Human Rights I quickly agreed and got to work.

I managed to cover all provisions from Article 1-32 & neither had the time nor thought of the technical provisions that important to cover those. Before the start of the training, the indomitable Zvonko Shavreski, president of Polio Plus Macedonia in his signature style passion made clear that the entirety of the treaty needed to be covered, he would not accept otherwise. So Alex and I found a way to complete the text and later added a section on the initial advocacy efforts around mainstreaming the CRPD in UN policies.

Fast forward, Professor Ron McCallum AO was nominated as Australia’s candidate for the CRPD Cttee and being my long-time mentor, asked me for some reading suggestions for a long-haul flight to Europe. I sent him, among others, the background paper of the Belgrade workshop with the clear caveat that it was rudimentary and not to be subjected to the mentor’s criticism.

Upon arriving in Europe he implored me to get this text published as he thought it the most useful at the time. And that’s how we produced 100 copies to give away at the CRPD Conference of States Parties in June 2010.

Translations into parts of the text into Arabic & Russian followed, then an official French translation as well as a Chinese.