COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES HOLDS FIRST MEETING

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this morning held the first meeting of its first session, during which it heard a statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, after which the members of the Committee made a solemn declaration and discussed their agenda for the week.

The first session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is currently being held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 23 to 27 February 2009. During the rest of the week, the Committee will elect its bureau and start discussions on the draft provisional rules of procedure as prepared by the Secretary-General. It will also start discussions on the organization of its future work. The Committee will discuss how to establish effective cooperation mechanisms with various relevant bodies with a view to further strengthen and enhance the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. The Committee will further meet with representatives of relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Adopted on 13 December 2006 by the General Assembly, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force on 3 May 2008. The purpose of the Convention is 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. Persons 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.

Kyung-wha Kang, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in introductory remarks, said that the High Commissioner had taken great interest in the development of the Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. She had hoped to be with the Committee on the first day of the Committee’s first session but had had to travel to the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Ms. Kang congratulated the members on their election to the Committee. Their Committee was the ninth treaty body and was part of a comprehensive framework created by the United Nations to promote and protect human rights. They joined the other existing human rights bodies whose task was to monitor implementation of substantive human rights in States parties so that they were enjoyed by all. A tenth body, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, would begin its work as soon as the Convention entered into force. The work of the Committee and that of the other treaty bodies was complemented and reinforced by the Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Working Groups, as well as its Universal Periodic Review mechanism.

Disability was an evolving concept, noted Ms. Kang, which emerged from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hindered their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. It was also well known that there were over half a billion persons with disabilities in the world today, amounting to up to ten per cent of the world’s population. Also, 80 per cent of the persons with disabilities lived in developing countries and many in conditions of extreme poverty.


Beliefs, attitudes, practices and laws which directly or indirectly served to deprive those with disabilities from their entitlements to achieve their fullest personal development persisted, said Ms. Kang. Also, disability was of extreme relevance to the achievement of international peace and security, not least because armed conflict was a significant cause of disability. In all countries of the world, persons with disabilities had faced and continued to face profound discrimination and violations of their human rights on a daily basis. The very swift process of elaboration of the Convention and its Optional Protocol as well as their rapid entry into force attested to the international community’s desire to transform human rights into a legal framework which was inclusive and truly universal.

Building on earlier international texts related to the rights of persons with disabilities, the Convention provided minimum standards of protection for the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights of persons with disabilities, on the basis of non-discrimination. But the Convention also went beyond these instruments, said Ms. Kang, by including provisions that made clear that persons with disabilities were entitled to live independently in their community, make their own choices and play an active role in society. By confirming persons with disabilities as full and active members of society, rather than dependent on good will and charity or to be approached from a medical perspective, the Convention was about change. While it did not create new rights, it explained key concepts, such as discrimination on the basis of disability.

She also encouraged the Committee to consider their future interaction with other mechanisms with the United Nations relevant to disabilities, most importantly the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission on Social Development who was mandated to monitor the implementation of the Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities. Further, Ms. Kang noted that the first session of the Committee was of enormous importance to all persons with disabilities, as it marked the beginning of a process in which the practical application of the Convention in the lives of persons with disabilities could be measured and responsibilities of States under the Convention clarified. There was much to be done before the United Nations system fully complied with the spirit of the Convention.



For use of the information media; not an official record


CRPD09002E