Work resumes on UN treaty to protect rights of persons with disabilities

With more than 600 million people suffering from disabilities worldwide, a special United Nations committee has begun a new two-week session in a bid to finalize the first-ever global convention enshrining equality and non-discrimination for affected persons.

“What we do agree upon in this committee will have direct consequences for those who have to face their life and personal development with a disability,” the Chairman of the General Assembly drafting committee, Ambassador Luis Gallegos Chiriboga of Ecuador, told the opening session yesterday at UN Headquarters in New York.

He called on 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 to “make the greatest efforts in the shortest possible time” to finalize the treaty. It is the committee’s fifth series of meetings.

“We must attend to the needs of a segment of the world population which, in spite of disability, gives us a lesson for living and for overcoming adversities,” Mr. Gallegos said.

It was agreed to discuss in informal consultations the proposals resulting from the review of the draft articles to narrow down differences for further negotiations.

These articles cover security; freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; freedom from violence and abuse and freedom of expression and opinion. They also include respect for privacy, the home and the family; and living independently and being included in the community.