QATAR IS hundredth COUNTRY TO SIGN CONVENTION ON DISABILITY RIGHTS

 

On 9 July, Qatar became the hundredth country to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which opened for signature on 30 March.

The landmark Convention, which was adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006 after three years of negotiations that included members of the disability community, will take effect 30 days after the deposit of the twentieth ratification with the Secretary-General.

In addition, 55 countries have, as of today, signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which allows individuals and groups to petition the yet to be established Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, once all national recourse procedures have been exhausted.

“We are pleased by the commitment shown by so many Member States,” said Thomas Schindlmayr of the United Nations Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The countries that have signed both the Convention and its Optional Protocol are: Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chile, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Uganda and Yemen.

The signatories to only the Convention are: Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu and the European Community.

Jamaica also ratified the Convention on 30 March.  The Treaty needs 19 additional ratifications to come into force –- a figure the United Nations Secretariat of the Convention feels will be reached by the end of the year.

When the Convention opened for signature at the United Nations on 30 March, 81 Member States and the European Community signed the treaty and 44 signed the Optional Protocol.  Together, this is a record for the first day of signature for any Convention.

For information, please visit http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable or contact, at the Department of Public Information, Daniel Shepard, tel.:  212.963.9495, e-mail:  shepard@un.org, or Edoardo Bellando, tel.:  212.963.8275, e-mail:  bellando@un.org.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record