Ad Hoc Committee on Convention

on Persons with Disabilities

21^st Meeting (AM & PM)

AD HOC COMMITTEE REACHES AGREEMENT ON TREATY PROTECTING, PROMOTING

RIGHTS, DIGNITY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

 

Draft Convention, Optional Protocol Due for General Assembly Next Week

Culminating nearly two decades of work by the United Nations to mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of disabled persons, negotiators at Headquarters agreed today on the final version of a historic convention on protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, which, along with an optional protocol, will be forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption next week.

The Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee, which has been working since 2001 to craft a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, wrapped up that task by adopting its final report (document A/AC.265/2006/L.7 and Corr.1), containing the full text of the 50-article draft treaty and optional protocol.  It also approved a draft resolution (document A/AC.265/2006/L.8/Rev.1) by which the Assembly would adopt the instruments and open them for signature at United Nations Headquarters from 30 March 2007.

Those decisions were immediately hailed by representatives of civil society attending the meeting, with a speaker for the International Disability Caucus declaring that, with the elaboration of a comprehensive convention, the United Nations had engineered a decisive shift in the 20-year war of ideas which had until now cast persons with disabilities as charity cases rather than rights holders.

That representative, along with speakers for national human rights institutions and the Communication Coordination Council to the United Nations, stressed that, once the draft convention was formally adopted by the Assembly, Member States should seize the opportunity to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, fully recognize their legal rights and promote their active participation as full citizens of the communities in which they lived and worked.

Don MacKay of New Zealand, current Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, thanked delegations for their dedication and willingness to compromise on tough issues.  The Committee would now “pass the baton” to Governments, but especially civil society, disabilities advocates and persons with disabilities who had the burden of ensuring that the draft convention was implemented properly.  It was ultimately persons with disabilities who would have to watch very carefully to ensure that the spirit and letter of the treaty were followed at the national level.

The draft convention cleared a final hurdle today, when the Ad Hoc Committee deleted, without voting but following protracted negotiations within the Arab Group and the European Union, a footnote to article 12, on “equal recognition before the law”, by which States parties would recognize that persons with disabilities enjoyed legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.  The footnote read as follows:  “In Arabic, Chinese and Russian, the term ‘legal capacity’ refers to ‘legal capacity for rights’, rather than ‘legal capacity to act’.”

Prior to that action, Syria’s representative said the League of Arab States was meeting concurrently on the matter and requested a suspension of the meeting until a decision was reached.

Before the meeting suspended, Costa Rica’s representative expressed concern at the delay, saying either consensus had been reached on the draft convention’s language, or it had not.  Asking why the Committee was waiting, he added that, at the very minimum, delegations expected action on the matter.

Following a lengthy suspension, Egypt’s representative announced some minor corrections to the Arab-language version of article 12, telling the Chairman that the Arab Group would later present a letter specifically regarding the footnote.  That letter, read out by Iraq’s representative on behalf of the Arab Group, stated that, while the Group would join the consensus on the text, it’s members understood that the “legal capacity” mentioned in article 12 meant “the capacity of rights not the capacity to act in accordance with the national laws and legislations of those States”.  The letter would be forwarded to the General Assembly.

Finland’s representative -- speaking on behalf of the European Union as well as Norway, Canada, the United States, Monaco, Australia, Israel, San Marino, Serbia, Romania, Andorra, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Armenia -- said he would accept changes to the Arabic translation and the draft optional protocol as long as they were technical in nature.

He said that, according to article 12 of the draft convention, States parties recognized the legal capacity of persons with disabilities before the law, a concept that had the same meaning in all language versions.  On the basis of that understanding, the European Union stood ready to join the consensus.  He also reminded the Committee that article 50 of the draft convention noted that the treaty “shall be equally authentic” in the six official languages of the United Nations.

The draft convention, approved in principle by the Ad Hoc Committee in late August, has been in the hands of a drafting panel since that time.

In other business today, Stefan Barriga ( Liechtenstein), Chairman of the Drafting Group, said that body had been working to polish the language and harmonize the terminology included in the draft convention and the optional protocol.  It had also been working to harmonize the final versions of those texts in the six official United Nations languages.

Persons with disabilities remain among the most marginalized of all populations and are barred by a wide range of physical, legal and social barriers from achieving their full potential.  The new treaty would require countries to guarantee freedom from exploitation and abuse for the disabled, while protecting the rights they already have, such as ensuring voting rights for blind persons and providing wheelchair-accessible buildings.  A draft optional protocol, agreed just hours earlier, would allow persons with disabilities to petition the Convention Committee, if they had exhausted all possible remedies at home.

The draft convention would recognize that countries would need time to implement its provisions fully.  It would also recognize the vital need for a change of attitude if disabled people were to achieve equal status and that countries ratifying the treaty would be obliged to combat negative stereotypes and prejudices, while promoting awareness of people's abilities and contribution to society.  Countries would also be asked to guarantee that persons with disabilities enjoyed their inherent right to life on an equal basis with others, ensure the equal rights and advancement of women and girls with disabilities and protect children with disabilities.

Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said while opening the meeting this morning that, while the speedy drafting process had been a testimony to the serious intention of the United Nations to strengthen the protection of the rights of disabled persons, more could be done to remedy their unacceptable marginalization.  While the draft convention provided the international community with the means to identify and dismantle the many barriers, intolerable breaches of rights continued.  Moreover, evidence had shown that by not integrating disabled persons, society lost enormous talent and experience.  “Not only, therefore, is protection against discrimination a right, it also makes good sense for us all,” she added.

José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the text was one of truly historic significance, particularly as it took to new heights the process initiated by the United Nations two decades ago to move from treating persons with disabilities as “objects of charity” to understanding that they were active and capable members of society; people with rights who were capable of claiming those rights.  “Quite simply, the convention calls for a change in the way that development actors do business and that includes the UN.”  From now on, development would have to be truly inclusive.

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For information media • not an official record