2024 Statement on the Right to Live in the Community: Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
June 11-13, 2024 marked the seventeenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, held at the United Nations. This year’s theme revolved around rethinking what it looks like to include people with disabilities in all aspects of society, with a special focus on technology, humanitarian emergencies, and the right to decent work and a sustainable livelihood.
Charles Sweeder, President and CEO of Keystone Human Services; Genevieve Fitzgibbon, President and CEO of Keystone Human Services International; and Carolyn Moore, International Policy and Advocacy Lead for KHSI represented KHS.
KHS was pleased to participate in the General Debate, with Genevieve Fitzgibbon delivering our statement on truly and meaningfully including people with disabilities, including designing community-based services together with people with disabilities.
The entire statement can be read below:
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Keystone Human Services International: Â COSP 2024 Statement
Thank you Chair.
Excellencies, delegates, friends from civil society,
My name is Genevieve Fitzgibbon, and I am President and CEO of Keystone Human Services International, a subsidiary of Keystone Human Services.
Keystone is an international NGO with over 50 years of experience implementing community alternatives to institutionalization of children and adults with disabilities. Our work is driven by partnerships with self-advocates and representative organizations of persons with disabilities.
Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, affirming the right to live in the community, lies at the core of our work.
The widespread ratification of the CRPD and the adoption of the Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization were significant milestones for the disability movement.
However, the slow pace of States to enact these Guidelines and the continued reliance on institutions continue to prevent truly and meaningfully including persons with disabilities.
For children with disabilities, institutionalization has a profound and long-lasting effect on their health, development, and well-being. But without strong and sustainable community services, including supports for families, institutions are too often seen as the only option.
Our work at KHS, done in close collaboration with self-advocates and OPDs, has shown that establishing sustainable community-based services, especially when designed together with persons with disabilities rather than for them; mainstreaming disability in policy frameworks; and strengthening platforms for self-advocacy can lead to fully including persons with disabilities.
This year’s Conference of States Parties comes at a critical point. At the upcoming Summit of the Future, world leaders will adopt a Pact for the Future – a future that includes people with disability. We cannot build such a future without all persons with disabilities having full access to their rights.
We therefore call on member states to:
- Ensure the full participation of persons with disabilities and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in all efforts to implement the CRPD, drawing on practices such as the Listen Include Respect guidelines.
- Support community living for all persons with disabilities, end all forms of institutionalization and establish accessible community-based services.
- Transform systems of care for children with disabilities to fulfill every child’s right to live with their families and communities; and
- Leverage the expertise of family members and direct support professionals in these efforts.
Ending segregation is not only possible but it is the only way forward. Keystone stands ready to support this collective journey toward full access for disability rights.
