PRESS CONFERENCE ON DISABILITY CONVENTION NEGOTIATIONS

Press conference on disability convention negotiations

The convention on the rights of persons with disabilities was important because it guided the process of change, not only legal change but also a change in societies, particularly how persons with disabilities were viewed and integrated into society, the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee drafting the convention said this afternoon.

Briefing correspondents at Headquarters on the Committee’s two-week meeting, Luis Gallegos (Ecuador) said that the convention covered more than 600 million people in the world.  “You are either born with a disability or you acquire it in your life by accidents, by sickness or by war.  But certainly when you are older, you will have some type of disability.”

The convention would try to include all the issues of disability in a global instrument that was applicable and enforceable, he said.  It would have a monitoring body similar to other human rights treaties.  The negotiations were unique in that they included the active participation of people with disabilities.  “It is extraordinary to see the efforts that they make and the way they conduct themselves in a session of this type, in order to go beyond those disabilities.”  He also noted the enormous contributions of non-governmental organizations to the Committee’s work.

At present, he said, the Committee had gone through the first reading of the text, and would deal with the other parts of the text during the next session of the Committee, which would take place from 23 August to 3 September.  While the convention had an enormous complexity to it, in substance, there were more commonalities and endeavours to foster the cause of the disabled than discrepancies.  There was a willingness among delegations and the non-governmental organizations to cover the issue in the most appropriate way to achieve consensus.

Asked when he hoped to have the convention completed, Mr. Gallegos said that he would like to have the convention ready for signature in September 2005, on the occasion of the Millennium Summit review process.  He noted that the major roadblock for moving ahead seemed to be procedure.  The issue was not substance but traditional ways of doing work, which could benefit from reform, just at the United Nations was undergoing reform. 

At the same time, he said that there were differences in conception of what the convention would have, in that it would have a human rights treaty basis, but would also have a component of international cooperation.  As 450 million of the world’s 600 million disabled lived in underdeveloped areas, special efforts were needed to promote cooperation -- not only in the area of resources, but also technology, medicine and capabilities -- to appreciate the nature of the problem and to integrate the disabled into societies.  “I think it is a noble cause and the ethical part of the cause is the one that is guiding the negotiators”, he added.

On what impact the convention would have on events in a given country, he said every country would use the convention differently.  Some would incorporate it into national legislation.  Some countries had good national legislation, while some did not.  It would be a good guide for those that did not.  It would also create a legal institutional structure that would aid 10 per cent of the world population.  Even for those that did not sign it, the convention would be a guide on how the world was evolving as a society.

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