GENERAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY CONVENTION TO MEET AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 24 MAY – 4 JUNE

Background Release                                         

GENERAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY CONVENTION

TO MEET AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 24 MAY – 4 JUNE

NEW YORK, 18 May (UN Department of Public Information) -- The United Nations committee that is drafting an international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities will continue its work at its two-week session, starting on Monday at United Nations Headquarters.

The third session of 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 will open on Monday, 24 May, at 10 a.m. in Conference Room 4.

The Committee will work on the basis of the draft elaborated by its Ad Hoc Working Group at the meeting it held at the United Nations from 5 to 16 January.  It will consider the report of the Working Group, including the draft text contained in the Working Group’s report (document A/AC.265/2004/WG.1, annex I).

The 25-article draft convention covers, among other things, equality and non-discrimination; equal recognition as a person before the law; promotion of positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities; living independently and being included in the community; participation in political and public life; accessibility; personal mobility; right to health and rehabilitation; right to work; social security and adequate standard of living; participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport; and international cooperation.

Contributions and comments on the draft have been submitted by a national human rights institution, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and by various non-governmental organizations -- European Disability Forum, Inclusion International, Indian NGO Consultative Meeting, Landmine Survivors Network, Physical Disability Council of Australia, World Blind Union, World Federation of the Deaf and World Network of Users, and Survivors of Psychiatry.

A unique feature of the convention is that the process is open, consultative and accessible to persons with disabilities and their organizations, as they work together with government experts at the United Nations.  Partnership is the key word -- both as governments develop their own inputs to the convention and as they work together in the drafting process.

he breakthrough treaty would create a legally binding framework for protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.  It would move beyond the traditional concept of access to the physical environment, to broader issues of equal access, social opportunities, health, education, employment, and political, economic and social development.  Governments that ratify would be legally bound to treat persons with disabilities not just as victims or a minority, but as subjects of the law with enforceable rights.

The drafting of such a treaty was proposed by Mexico to the General Assembly in 2001, reflecting the growing international acknowledgement of disability rights as human rights.  Currently, the rights of persons with disabilities are only covered implicitly by the existing human rights conventions, to the extent that they apply to all human beings.  Only the Convention on the Rights of the Child makes explicit reference to children with disabilities in one article.

Current instruments that address the rights of people with disabilities are legally non-binding.  Thus, persons with disabilities face the plight of being legally “invisible” in their societies and even in the international arena.  Most concerns raised by persons with disabilities have been largely treated as part of a social welfare approach.  The convention would make them “rights holders” and “subjects of law”, with full participation in formulating and implementing plans and policies affecting them.

Negotiations reflect competing viewpoints.  Some countries support a comprehensive convention that not only restates the rights contained in human rights instruments, but goes further to provide tangible services and equal opportunities.  Others have pointed out that the rights of persons with disabilities are intrinsically connected with a country’s economic resources.  They are, therefore, concerned that, in the developing world, the financial burden of compliance will make a treaty unappealing to many governments that are committed to the principle of equal opportunity but could not make it a reality.

This legal instrument in the making brings to the fore the need to raise awareness of the wide range of issues that affect the welfare of the some 600 million people worldwide who experience disabilities of various types and degrees.

The next session of the Committee will be in New York from 23 August to 3 September.

Contact:  Edoardo Bellando, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel.:  (212) 963-8275, e-mail:  bellando@un.org, or visit www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable.

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