On May 11th to 16th Sif Holst visited New York in order to further her candidacy to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, and to talk about her vision as a candidate.
It was a chance to talk about the strength of diversity, of creating a society where persons with a disability are key to creating more opportunities for all, how we need to work with Universal Design and Universal Courtesy, but also the need for investment in education and an inclusive labor market.
Among the topics were also the need to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and lobbying for a general comment on health and also remembering persons with a disability as we talk about climate change. As where the need to increase cooperation between the CRPD Committee and the Committees monitoring the other Conventions, such as the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, and other UN agencies.
Sif Holst used the visit to talk to different UN agencies, including UN Women, to learn more about how they work to include persons with disabilities both internally, when recruiting or planning events and when engaging in activities. The focus is there, and it is a work in progress, to ensure the continued focus there is a need to ask donors to continue this development. She also took a large number of bilateral talks and a few receptions, including one together with the Spanish Candidate to the CEDAW Committee during her stay in New York.
