GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAKE ROOM IN ITS SCHEDULE THIS YEAR TO CONSIDER ADOPTION OF COMPREHENSIVE DISABILITIES CONVENTION

Sixty-first General Assembly

General Committee

5^th Meeting (AM)

GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAKE ROOM IN ITS SCHEDULE

THIS YEAR TO CONSIDER ADOPTION OF COMPREHENSIVE DISABILITIES CONVENTION

The General Committee today recommended to the General Assembly the allocation of agenda item “Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” and that it be considered directly in plenary, for the sole purpose of taking action on the draft convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, during the main part of the current session.

The request for inclusion of the item, previously allocated to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), was contained in a letter addressed to the President of the General Assembly, from the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Disabilities (document A/61/552).  The Ad Hoc Committee, tasked with completing a comprehensive and integral international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, approved the instrument in late August.  The text was now undergoing scrutiny by a drafting group.  The Ad Hoc Committee is aiming to finalize its work this month, when it adopts the group’s report, after which the Assembly could then take action.

The General Committee also recommended a request, by Qatar, for the inclusion of an additional item, “Support by the United Nations system of the efforts of Governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies” (document A/61/235), also to be considered directly in plenary meeting during the current session.

The General Committee will meet again at a date and time to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record