Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by people with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law. The Convention has served as the major catalyst in the global movement from viewing people with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as full and equal members of society, with human rights. It is also the only UN human rights instrument with an explicit sustainable development dimension. The Convention was the first human rights treaty of the twenty-first century.to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity...that disability is an evolving concept and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with othersPersons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by people with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law. The Convention has served as the major catalyst in the global movement from viewing people with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as full and equal members of society, with human rights. It is also the only UN human rights instrument with an explicit sustainable development dimension. The Convention was the first human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. The text was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 13 December 2006, and opened for signature on 30 March 2007. Following ratification by the 20th party, it came into force on 3 May 2008. As of July 2019, it has 162 signatories and 179 parties, which includes 172 states and the European Union (which ratified it on 23 December 2010 to the extent responsibilities of the member states were transferred to the European Union). In December 2012, a vote in the United States Senate fell six votes short of the two-thirds majority required for ratification. The Convention is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 1981 to 1992 was the UN 'Decade of Disabled Persons'. In 1987, a global meeting of experts to review progress recommended that the UN General Assembly should draft an international convention on the elimination of discrimination against persons with disabilities. Draft convention outlines were proposed by Italy and subsequently Sweden, but no consensus was reached. Many government representatives argued that existing human rights documents were sufficient. Instead, non-compulsory 'Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities' were adopted by the General Assembly in 1993. In 2000, leaders of five international disability NGOs issued a declaration, calling on all governments to support a Convention. In 2001, the General Assembly, following a proposal by Mexico, established an Ad Hoc Committee to consider proposals for a comprehensive and integral convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, based on a holistic approach. Disability rights organisations, including the International Disability Alliance as coordinator of an ad hoc International Disability Caucus, participated actively in the drafting process, in particular seeking a role for disabled people and their organisations in the implementation and monitoring of what became the Convention. Mexico initiated negotiations, with active support from GRULAC (the Latin American regional group). When support for a Convention was foundering in 2002 due to WEOG opposition, New Zealand played a pivotal role in achieving cross-regional momentum. Acting as facilitator from 2002–03, New Zealand eventually assumed the formal role of Chair of Ad Hoc Committee and led negotiations to a consensus agreement in August 2006, working closely with other Bureau members Jordan, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, and South Africa, as well as Korea and Mexico. The Convention became one of the most quickly supported human rights instruments in history, with strong support from all regional groups. 160 States have signed the Convention upon its opening in 2007 and 126 States ratified the Convention within its first five years. In recognition of its role in creating the Convention, as well as the quality of New Zealand's landmark national Disability Strategy, Governor-General of New Zealand Anand Satyanand received the 2008 World Disability Award on behalf of the nation. As of 2015, for the first time in its history, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened an investigation into a signatory state for breaching their convention obligations. The investigation was triggered by article 6 of the optional protocol, which provides that an investigation will be carried out once the Committee receives 'reliable information indicating grave and systematic violation' of the human rights of persons with disabilities. The government of the United Kingdom is being investigated, with the final report currently due to be released in 2017. The Convention follows the civil law tradition, with a preamble, in which the principle that 'all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated ' of Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action is cited, followed by 50 articles. Unlike many UN covenants and conventions, it is not formally divided into parts. Article 1 defines the purpose of the Convention: Articles 2 and 3 provide definitions and general principles such as communication including Braille, sign language, plain language and nonverbal communication, reasonable accommodation and universal design. Articles 4–32 define the rights of persons with disabilities and the obligations of states parties towards them. Many of these mirror rights affirmed in other UN conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the Convention Against Torture, but with specific obligations ensuring that they can be fully realized by persons with disabilities.