Convention on rights of persons with disabilities to be opened for signature on 30 March

Date posted: 
30 March 2007

UNITED NATIONS, 29 March - Some 50 countries have indicated that they will sign the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at a solemn ceremony to be held at the UN General Assembly hall on Friday, 30 March.

The ceremony, taking place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., will be webcast at http://www.un.org/webcast. Speakers include Deputy-Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and Gideon Mandesi, spokesperson for civil society (see draft programme at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/crpdopensig.htm).

The following 53 countries have so far announced they will sign the Convention when it opens for signature by States and regional integration organizations: Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Republic of Korea, San Marino, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen, as well as the European Community. Many countries will sign at the level of Minister.

Some 30 countries will also sign the Optional Protocol on Communications, which will allow individual petitioning on alleged rights violations to a committee of experts once all national recourse procedures had been exhausted.

The Convention will enter into force when ratified by 20 countries.

A press conference at 12:45, to be webcast at http://www.un.org/webcast, will feature Mrs. Arbour, Mexico's Under-Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, New Zealand' Minister for Disability Issues Ruth Dyson, Ecuador Vice-President Lenin Moreno and civil society spokesperson Yannis Vardakastanis. A discussion on implementing the Convention, starting at 3:00 p.m., will feature delegates and panellists covering both political and technical issues.

A discussion on implementing the Convention, starting at 3:00 p.m., will feature delegates and panellists covering both political and technical issues.

Representatives of more than 350 international disability organizations, which were instrumental in drafting the treaty, are expected to attend the ceremony.

For information, please visit http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable and http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention, or contact: Edoardo Bellando, Tel. (212) 963-8275, e-mail: bellando@un.org, or Daniel Shepard, Tel. (212) 963-9495, e-mail: shepard@un.org.