DISABILITY: Landmark treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities enters into force - introduction

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) took effect on 3 May 2008, a month after Ecuador became the 20th ratifying nation. The Convention expressly recognises the equality of persons with disabilities for the first time in international law. The CRPD has so far been ratified by 25 countries.

Today’s CRINMAIL celebrates the Convention’s birth and provides tools for pressing more governments to ratify and implement the Convention.

The CRPD, which was adopted in 2006 after four years of negotiations, is the first Convention of the 21st century, and addresses civil, political, social economic and cultural rights.

Can you believe this? Facts and figures on children with disabilities

• Up to 150 million children globally have a disability and the numbers are rising
• Children with disabilities are disproportionately likely to live in poverty
• 50% of children who are deaf and 60% of those with an intellectual impairment are sexually abused
• Parents and medical professionals who murder children with disabilities often have reduced sentences and use mercy killing defences – the lives of children with disabilities are not treated as of equal value with others
• In some countries 90% of children with disabilities will not survive beyond the age of 20
• 98% of children with disabilities across the developing world have no access to education
• Discrimination in relation to life saving treatments, to health care, to child care services and education is endemic
• Access to justice is routinely denied because they are not considered credible witnesses

[Source: Draft version of 'Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities: A guide to using the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the Convention on the Rights of the Child,' produced on behalf of the Save the Children Alliance by Sweden and the UK]

What does the Convention mean for children with disabilities?

The new Convention marks a shift from seeing children with disabilities as objects of charity, and addressing their 'special needs' - the approach set out in Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - to subjects of rights.

All the Articles in the text apply to children with disabilities; in addition, Article 7 sets out specific obligations to ensure children with disabilities enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children, to ensure that the best interests of the child is a primary consideration, and to provide disability and age appropriate assistance to ensure that children with disabilities are able to realise the right to their express views on all matters of concern to them and have them taken seriously in accordance with age and maturity. Read more in Gerison Lansdown's paper: The New Disability Convention and the Protection of Children.

What if my government violates the Convention?

The Convention has an Optional Protocol which provides for a complaints mechanism and is ratified separately to the Convention. This mechanism would enable individuals or groups whose government has violated their rights as set out in the Convention to get redress, provided national remedies have been exhausted. The Optional Protocol has so far been ratified by 15 States.

Complaints submitted under the Optional Protocol will be examined by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee has not been set up yet, but updates will be available on the CRIN website.

See how other UN complaints mechanisms work here
Sign the petition for creating a complaints mechanism for children's rights  here.

Reservations

Of the States which have ratified the Convention so far, Belgium, Egypt, El Salvador, Malta, Mauritius, Netherlands and Poland have all made declarations of reservations, see these here.

The UK government has said that it will ratify the Convention and its Optional Protocol, but with a raft of reservations, including on residential care, employment in the armed forces, segregating education, and the right for people with disabilities to have liberty of movement, nationality and immigration. See: UN Convention Campaign Coalition calls for government ratification without reservation.

[Sources: BBC, Save the Children, Gerison Lansdown]

What can you do?

Check if your government has ratified the Convention here

If it has not already done, so you can lobby your government to ratify the Convention. This toolkit, developed by Disabled People's International, offers ideas about how to do this.
Implementing the Convention

The next step is to get governments to implement the Convention.

A number of toolkits and tips can be used to helpget the Convention implemented:

• Tips and strategies for implementation from international child rights advocate Gerison Lansdown
• Implementation Toolkit for the UN Convention (Disabled People's International)

If governments fail to implement the Convention, they can be held to account through a complaints procedure. This is provided for in the Optional Protocol to the Convention. The procedure can be used to report violations of the rights contained in the Convention to the UN. More information about the procedure will be available on CRIN as it develops.