音声ブラウザご使用の方向け: SKIP NAVI GOTO NAVI

United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Ryosuke Matsui

Vice President
Asia and the Pacific Region
Rehabilitation International

A proposal concerning a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities was submitted to UN General Assembly for committee stage consideration, one in 1987 from the Italian government and the other in 1989 from the Swedish government. Both attempts failed to reach the General Assembly. Instead, the UN General Assembly adopted the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in 1993.

In 1999, Rehabilitation International launched its "RI Charter for the Third Millennium", which calls on member states on UN to support the early promulgation of a UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. In March 2000, the World NGO Summit on Disability, which was hosted by China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF), resolved on "the Beijing Declaration on the Rights of People with Disabilities in the New Century". These initiatives contributed to renewed interests within the UN on the convention. With the initiative of the Mexican government, the UN General Assembly, adopted in December 2001, the Resolution (56/168) on a "Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities". The Resolution also approved the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee to consider proposals for the Convention.

Based on this Resolution, the Ad Hoc Committee's first meeting was organized at the UN Headquarters from July 29 to August 9, 2002. According to a provisional delegation list published by the Secretariat of the Committee, a total of 54 national delegations took part in the meeting. These delegations consisted of 8 from African Region, 12 from Asia and the Pacific Region, 3 from North American and Caribbean Region, 10 from Central and South American Region and 21 from European Region. Among them, Central and South American delegations headed by the Mexican delegation, and European delegations headed by the Danish delegation, played very active role in leading the discussions throughout the meeting.

The major achievements of this Ad Hoc Committee meeting are as follows:

Based on the General Assembly Resolution 56/510 on accreditation and participation of non-governmental organizations, many NGOs, especially from the USA and EU as well as the members of International Disability Alliance (IDA) and other relevant international NGOs, actively participated in the discussions of the meeting. They have established a global information network to promote early adoption of a Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in close collaboration with relevant local, regional and international governmental and other non-governmental organizations. During the meeting, NGO caucus, under the excellent leadership of Ms. Kicki Nordstrom, Chair of IDA and President of World Blind Union, was regularly organized for information exchanges and promotion of collaboration among relevant NGOs and lobbying activities to the national delegations.

On the last day of the meeting the Committee adopted the following recommendations (excerption):

  1. Decides that the Ad Hoc Committee shall hold one meeting in 2003, of a duration of ten working days, prior to the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly, in order to give further consideration to proposals and elements for a Convention; (Actually, next Ad Hoc Committee meeting is to be held at the UN Headquarters around May, 2003.)
  2. Invites regional commissions and inter-governmental organizations, within their respective mandates, as well as non-governmental organizations, including national disability and human rights institutions, and independent Committee suggestions and possible elements, to be considered in proposals for a Convention; 3. Urges that further efforts are made to ensure the active and participatory involvement of non-governmental organizations in the Ad Hoc Committee, and invites these organizations to address the Ad Hoc Committee at its second session in accordance with Ad Hoc Committee Decision on the modalities of participation the nongovernmental organization in the work of the Committee;
  3. Further urges that efforts are made to ensure that accessibility to facilities and documentation is improved for all persons with disabilities, inter alia, by making available electronic versions of statements to the Secretariat and requests the Secretariat to post them in a manner allowing for real time accessibility by persons with disabilities, and to continue to update its online database in compliance with the WAI-guidelines produced by the World Wide Web Consortium;
  4. Encourages Member States to include persons with disabilities and/or representatives of disability organizations in their delegations to the Ad Hoc Committee; 4 R. Matsui
  5. Decides to create a Voluntary Fund to finance the participation of non-governmental organizations, and invites Governments, civil society and the private sector to contribute to the Voluntary Fund. (Several representatives of national delegations from developing countries urged developed countries to set aside 10% of their ODA to fund the disability projects in developing countries, including the financial assistance to the participation of disability NGOs of developing countries in the Ad Hoc Committee meeting and its related activities.)