Working together to achieve more
My name is Sif Holst, and I’m the Danish nominee for the[Committee of on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/crpd/pages/crpdindex.aspx.)]I am also the vice-chair of the Disabled People’s Organisations Denmark and I am a disability rights advocate, sitting on several boards and committees interacting with the rest of civil society and advising the government and the local municipalities. I have a rare physical disability myself and I am dependent on the use of a power wheelchair and personal assistance.
I have previously worked as a development worker and later an organisational consultant working with youth with people with disabilities in Denmark, Ghana and Uganda establishing and strengthening disability organisations. I have also worked as a health political consultant bringing attention to chronic pain.
Since 2013 I have been first an Alternate and now a member of the European Economic and Social Committee and I have just as long worked in a Nordic context. In the Nordic context we work together in an disability umbrella and in Nordic Council’s Disability Council, where disability organisations, disability researchers and government representatives work together to gather more knowledge and new solutions to fulfil the ambition of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
We need to work together
And we need to work together if we want to release the full potential of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The disability organisations, our disability umbrellas are vital with their knowledge and experience. It must always be “Nothing about us without us”. The national and local governments much of course also do their part, to live up to the obligations, but we must also find ways of including the rest of civil society, for example employers and labour unions, organisations of women, children, youth, elderly and immigrants, organisations working on outdoor activities, tourism or transportation, service providers, disability researchers and universities and any others we can convince to be part of developing the solutions we need. This is how I have always worked, how I create new energy, involvement, engagement. I believe that we achieve the best results, working together, mainstreaming. Being a woman with a rare disability is in itself something which the CRPD Committee needs. But it is more than this, with my experience, my knowledge and my strong analytic and problemsolving skills I believe that I would be an asset to the CRPD committee. We need more cooperation, more sharing of knowledge, to engage the resources of civil society more, to strengthen our cooperation and achieve our goals – also ensuring that no one is left behind.
To dive further into my thoughts on three topics you can visit:
- In regards to Article 9, Accessibility
- In regards to Article 25 regarding Health
- In regards to Article 27 on Work and Employment:
You can also visit my campaign site for more information and an introductory video