A regional consultation on children's rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be held in Sana'a, Yemen, from 29 - 31st October 2007. The aim of the consultation, which is organised by Save the Children Sweden and Save the Children UK with partners, is to look at how to use the new Convention to promote and strengthen the rights of children with disabilities. It will address governments’ obligations to fulfil, protect and respect these rights. The Consultation will contribute towards the development of an Implementation Handbook, through a participatory approach with the disability movement from the Middle East and North Africa region and with children from Yemen. Twenty children, including 12 children with disabilities, will participate in the consultation. The children come from the Yemeni children's parliament and NGOs working on disability rights. Other participants include experts in the field of disability rights and government and NGO representatives from Egypt, Bahrain, the occupied Palestinian territories, Qatar, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon. The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is the first human rights treaty of the 21st Century which marks a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It reaffirms that human rights extend to all people, irrespective of disability or age. The significance of the treaty, therefore, is not in establishing new human rights standards for people with disabilities; rather, it is to ensure their realisation. The treaty introduces new obligations to overcome cultural, legal, economic and physical barriers and introduces measures which ensure that people with disabilities are acknowledged as subjects of rights, entitled to respect on an equal footing with all other people. The UNCRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2006 and opened for signature on 30 March 2007. As at October 2007, 114 countries have signed, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebano, Qatar, the Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan, and Yemen, and seven countries - Croatia, Cuba, Gabon, Hungary, India, Jamaica, and Panama - have ratified. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on such short time span. For daily updates on the consultation, go here. Information will also be made available in Arabic here. For more information, contact: Ibrahim Faltas Aisha Saeed Sabah Sabri Further information
Waleed Mohammed Elbashir
Country Manager
Email: welbashir@scsmena.org
Tel: +967 (01) 417 899
Regional Advocacy Officer
Email: ifaltas@scsmena.org
Tel: +967 (01) 417 899
Senior Programme Officer
Email: asaeed@scsmena.org
Tel: +967 (01) 417 899
Programme Officer/Communications Focal Point
Email: sbadri@scsmena.org
Tel: +967 (01) 417 899
Owner: Save the Childrenpdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Agenda.doc
YEMEN: Regional consultation on children's rights and the Disability Convention
Organisation:
Link :
http://www.crin.org/docs/Agenda.doc
Countries
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