EC REPRESENTATIVES DECLARE THE IMPACT OF NEW UN CONVENTION ON DISABILITY RIGHTS FOR EC AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Brussels (OTS) - At a press conference today, the UN, the EC and
the disability and development NGOs set down the implications of the
new UN Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which is to
be signed by the EC and Member States at an historic ceremony in New
York on 30 March 2007.

Jean-Luc Onckelinx of the United Nations highlighted the unique
role and collaboration of the disability NGOs in the drafting of this
new UN Convention. It would be the first universal legally binding
standard to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. 40
countries are set to sign the UN Convention at the signing ceremony
tomorrow. Mr Onckelinx said that this Convention, a human rights
Convention, marked a major shift from a
social and welfare perspective to a human rights approach of
disability which will have important impact on all legal and policy
approaches to the issue.

Max van den Berg MEP, Vice-Chair European Parliament Development
Committee, pointed out that, of the 600 million persons with
disabilities in the world, 80% of the population of disabled people
live in developing countries. This UN Convention was strongly
supported by the European Parliament. As a binding Treaty it would
require the EC institutions to review their policies and legislations
to ensure compliance. Article 32, the International
Cooperation Article, of the Convention would require, in particular
development cooperation initiatives of EC and member states to be
fully inclusive of persons with disabilities. "This is very
significant. It is the first time disability has been and will be
recognized as a cross-cutting issue in development cooperation and
will be have to be addressed as such." The European Parliament would
have an important role in supporting NGOs on the monitoring of
signature, ratification and implementation of the UN Convention.
This task must also be done with ACP partners and with NGOs in the
South.

For the European Commission, Rolf Timans, DG External Relations
said that the EC signing of this new Convention was a remarkable
event - 'it is the first time that the European Community has taken
part in negotiations of a UN Convention and the first time the
European Community will sign such a Treaty with the EC Member
States". All 27 EU member states were planning to sign, although not
all would sign at the New York ceremony on 30 March 2007.
The next step would be ratification and the European Commission will
have to examine the delineation of EC and member state competence and
undertaken an internal legislative review to establish where
improvements in EC legislation were required. In respect of the new
European Human Rights Instrument, there was clear language in support
of disability capacity building and addressing human rights abuse and
discrimination of persons
with disabilities.

Carlotta Besozzi, Director of the European Disability Forum (EDF)
stressed that this new UN Convention will address the discrimination
and the human rights abuses that persons with disabilities experience
around the world, including in the EU Member States. "This Treaty
will be of major relevance also in Europe. All EU Member States have
disability legislation but in many
of them, disabled people continue to face violation of Human Rights,
such as institutionalization, forced sterilization, barriers to
education, denied legal capacity or the fact that they cannot make
choices about the lives they want to live.".

It is welcome that a number of countries will sign the Optional
Protocol and it is hoped more will follow. However, EDF Director
expressed deep concern that four of the EU member states, Denmark,
UK, France and Latvia will not be signing the Optional Protocol of
the UN Convention tomorrow. This Optional Protocol provides for
individual persons with disabilities to challenge their Governments,
within the Committee under the Convention, where they consider their
human rights under the Convention to have been violated. "It is a
very bad sign", Carlotta Besozzi said, "some of these countries do
not want to be accountable to their citizens!"

Marianne Schulze, Human Rights Expert for Light for the World and
the International Disability & Development Consortium highlighted the
significance of the International Cooperation Article 32, the first
stand alone provision on international cooperation included in an
international human rights instrument. Marianne Schulze sincerely
thanked the European Parliament for its support of Article 32 which
was crucial in the negotiation process. Persons with disabilities
live predominantly in poverty. Addressing human rights denial of
persons with disabilities is
fundamental to poverty alleviation and eradication.

Marianne Schulze said that "Article 32 requires that persons with
disabilities benefit from overseas development assistance (currently
only 2% of persons with disabilities do). It is essential that no
development aid is used to build new barriers; for instance it is
totally unacceptable for development aid to build inaccessible
schools which perpetuate the cycle of
poverty and disability"

LIGHT FOR THE WORLD and IDDC looked forward to the European
Commission and EU member states work on implementing the Convention
to ensure inclusive development in their programmes and strategies on
poverty reduction, Marianne Schulze said.

Rückfragehinweis:
Sophie Beaumont
Tel.: + 322 275 0085
mailto:[email protected]

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