WORKING GROUP ON DISABILITY CONVENTION TO MEET AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 5-16 JANUARY

WORKING GROUP ON DISABILITY CONVENTION TO MEET AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 5-16 JANUARY

The Working Group established to draft a text of an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities will meet from 5 to 16 January at United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 4.

The Working Group was established by the General Assembly Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities after its second meeting in June 2003.  The Group is to prepare a basis for negotiations, to be presented to the Ad Hoc Committee at its third session, from 24 May to    4 June in New York.

In addition to governments, the Working Group includes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all over the world, especially organizations of persons with disabilities.  The Working Group’s 12 NGO representatives are from the Landmine Survivors Network, the Inter-American Institute on Disability, Disabled Peoples’ International, the European Disability Forum, the World Federation of the Deaf Blind, the World Federation of the Deaf, Inclusion International, the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, Disability Australia Limited, the World Blind Union, and Rehabilitation International.  One national human rights institution, the South African Human Rights Commission, is also represented.

The 27 government representatives are from Asia (China, India, Japan, Lebanon, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Thailand), Africa (Cameroon, Comoros, Mali, Morocco, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Uganda), Latin America and the Caribbean (Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela), Western Europe and Other States (Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Sweden), and Eastern Europe (Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia).

The Working Group will take into account all contributions submitted to the Ad Hoc Committee by States, observers, regional meetings, United Nations bodies, regional commissions and intergovernmental organizations, as well as by NGOs, national disability and human rights institutions and independent experts.

A Virtual Forum (www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcwglogin.htm) has been launched to facilitate dialogue on the convention between members of the Working Group and among all interested parties.

Contact:  Edoardo Bellando, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel. (212) 963-8275.

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