Ad Hoc Committee on Convention

on Persons with Disabilities

1^st Meeting (PM)

AD HOC COMMITTEE ON DISABILITIES CONVENTION ELECTS

 

DON MCKAY OF NEW ZEALAND AS CHAIRMAN

 

The General Assembly Committee charged with drafting the first-ever convention on the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities elected a new Chairman in a brief organizational meeting today.

Formally known as the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, the Ad Hoc Committee was established by General Assembly resolution 56/168 of December 2001.  At its third session, in 2004, the Committee started its negotiations on a draft convention based on a text prepared by the Committee’s working group.  It concluded its fifth session in February 2005, having reached agreement on draft articles of the Convention regarding, among other things, justice, privacy, independent living and full inclusion in the community.  The sixth session will take place from 1 to 12 August 2005.

Addressing such issues as equal recognition of disabled persons before the law, the right to work, personal mobility and promotion of positive attitudes, the 25-article treaty will create a legally binding framework for promoting the rights of the world’s 600 million people with disabilities.

The newly elected Chairman, Don McKay (New Zealand), representing the Western European and Other States Group, has served as coordinator of the Committee’s informal consultations.  Addressing the Ad Hoc Committee, he thanked members for the trust invested in him.  He would work hard to ensure that the draft convention was concluded as quickly as possible.  He intended to hold inter-sessional consultations before August on various aspects of the Committee’s work.  Noting that the Ad Hoc Committee had made good progress to date, he paid tribute to the Committee’s former Chairman, Luis Gallegos Chiriboga of Ecuador.

Also elected today were Mu’taz Hyassat (Jordan) from the Asian States Group, Ivana Grollova (CzechRepublic) from the Eastern European Groups of States, and Jorge Ballestero (Costa Rica) as Committee Vice-Chairpersons.  The election of fourth Vice-Chairperson from the African States Group was postponed until a later date.

The representative of Canada took the floor at the conclusion of the meeting to congratulate the newly elected Bureau members and confirm her delegation’s support for the Committee’s work by pursuing negotiations in an efficient manner.

The Ad Hoc Committee will meet again at a time to be announced.

* *** *