U.N. approaved the Supports Rights of Disabled People

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer

13 December 2006 at 9:58pm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The General Assembly on Wednesday approved the
first U.N. convention to protect the rights of the world's 650
million disabled people, prohibiting their exclusion from education,
jobs and politics.

The convention requires countries to protect disabled people from
exploitation and abuse and to guarantee their rights _ such as
ensuring the blind can vote and having wheelchair-accessible
buildings.

The 192-nation General Assembly adopted the convention by consensus,
the culmination of campaign led by rights activists for the
disabled. It was the first new human rights treaty to be adopted in
the 21st century.

The convention "promises to be the dawn of a new era _ an era in
which disabled people will no longer have to endure the
discriminatory practices and attitudes that have been permitted to
prevail for all too long," said U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark
Malloch Brown.

U.N. member states can start signing the convention on March 30, and
it will enter into force when it is ratified by 20 countries.
Speakers urged speedy approval.

"It would be a travesty if ... people with disabilities again find
themselves at the back of the queue for government attention," said
New Zealand's U.N. Ambassador Don MacKay, who chaired the committee
that drafted the convention.

Although disabled people are included in existing human rights
conventions, their marginalization clearly indicates the need for
one their own, MacKay said.

"Attitudes need to change. Societies need to be more inclusive and
accessible and persons with disabilities need to be more empowered,"
he said, praising the 400 activists who "very effectively cajoled
governments" into approving the new convention.

About 10 percent of the world's population, or 650 million people,
have disabilities, according to U.N. figures. That makes them 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.

It guarantees their inherent right to life, legal protection,
property ownership, control of their financial affairs and privacy.

"As persons with disabilities, we deserve to have our rights
recognized on an equal basis with all other citizens _ and never
less than this," said Pamela Molina Toleda of Chile, representing
the International Disability Caucus, which comprises more than 70
organizations that participated in drafting the convention and
lobbying for it.

Tina Minkowitz of the World Network of Users and Survivors of
Psychiatry said any laws restricting the human rights of disabled
people "need to be abolished from today onwards all over the world."
She cited the forced sterilization of disabled girls and women.

"Sign language and other alternative methods of communications must
be recognized in all situations of information, education and
employment," she added.


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