80 countries sign U.N. convention protecting rights of the world’s disabled

By Edith M. Lederer
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:15 a.m. March 31, 2007

UNITED NATIONS – In what the U.N. human rights chief called an
unprecedented show of support to empower the physically and mentally
impaired, 80 countries signed a U.N. convention enshrining the rights
of the world’s 650 million disabled.

The United Nations held a ceremony Friday on the first day the
convention opened for signatures and not only did 80 countries and a
representative ofthe European Union sign it but Jamaica announced that
it had also ratified the convention. That means only 19 more
ratifications are needed before the convention comes into force, and
speaker after speaker urged speedy approval.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour announced the
huge level of support at a news conference afterward.

`It’s certainly unprecedented in terms of support for a human rights
instrument, but it’s apparently setting records for the signature of
any convention in the United Nations,’ she said.

The convention is a blueprint to end discrimination and exclusion of
the physically and mentally disabled in education, jobs, and everyday
life. It requires countries to guarantee freedom from exploitation and
abuse for the disabled, while protecting rights they already have –
such as voting rights for the blind and wheelchair-accessible
buildings.

The convention guarantees that the disabled have the inherent right to
life on an equal basis with the able-bodied and requires countries to
prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee equal
legal protection.

Countries must also ensure the equal right of the disabled to own and
inherit property, to control their financial affairs, and to privacy
over their personal lives.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted the 32-page convention by consensus
in December, culminating a campaign spearheaded by disability rights
activistsand the governments of New Zealand, Ecuador and Mexico.

`We would not be here today without the sustained efforts of the
disability community,’ Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said
at Friday’s ceremony.

`In three short years, the convention went from dream to reality,’ she
said.

`On its adoption by the General Assembly late last year, it becamethe
first human rights treaty of the 21st century, and the fastest
negotiated international human rights instrument in history.’

Arbour said `it’s very appropriate’ that the first treaty of the new
century `targets a community that has been so marginalized for so
long=80=9D and that it focuses on rights – not just social welfare
and programs to meet the needs of the disabled.

She called the convention `a first step’ in empowering the disabled,
stressing that once it comes into force governments will have to enact
legislation and change practices to ensure the rights of the disabled.

Yannis Vardakastanis, representing the International Disability Caucus
which was in the forefront of the campaign for the convention,
congratulated the 80 countries that signed `this unprecedented
convention.’

He said it represents `a very drastic’ shift in the way the
international community looks at disabilities.

`The 650 million persons with disabilities around the world expect and
anticipate that this convention will change the real living
conditions, that this convention will take away the discrimination,
the exclusion, and all the obstacles that people with disabilities are
faced with in their daily lives,’ Vardakastanis said.

According to the latest U.N. figures, about 10 percent of the world’s
population, or 650 million people, live with a disability and the
number is increasing with population growth. The disabled constitute
the world’s largest minority, and 80 percent live in developing
countries, many in poverty.

The convention advocates keeping the disabled in their communities
rather than removing them and educating them separately as many
countries do.

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