The IPU’s fourteenth handbook for parliamentarians will be launched on 8 October at the 117th Assembly in Geneva. The handbook, produced in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), explains in practical terms the rationale and objectives of a new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. It also delves into the ways in which parliaments can translate the rights and principles at the core of the Convention into tangible action on the home front.
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Persons with disabilities have long been the victims of discrimination and abuse in virtually all settings, including the school, the workplace, the court of law, and the healthcare facility. There are some 650 million persons with disabilities around the world. A great number of them live in poverty and suffer exclusion because of society-wide obstacles and generally negative attitudes about disability. This is why one of the messages embedded in the Convention is that disability does not so much reside with the person but with society as a whole: once we remove the obstacles that persons with disabilities face on a daily basis (and most of them can be removed), they will be able to enjoy their human rights just like anybody else.
To date, over one hundred States have signed the Convention and five have ratified it (Croatia, Cuba, Hungary, Jamaica, and Panama). It will take 20 ratifications for the Convention to enter into force. Following that, two key bodies will come into being: a Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which will review periodic reports by States Parties on the implementation of the Convention; and a Conference of States Parties, which will consider general issues relating to the implementation of the Convention.
As the handbook’s cover suggests, the Convention is the key that will unlock the situation in which many persons with disabilities find themselves. The IPU is therefore urging all Member Parliaments to work towards the earliest possible ratification of the Convention. Subject to the obtainment of extra-budgetary funding, the IPU will also conduct a series of regional workshops to help parliaments address practical issues arising from the implementation of the Convention.
The handbook was written by a number of experts and with the support of an editorial board which included both current and former members of parliament with disabilities themselves. Several UN system agencies such as the ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank were also closely involved in the exercise.
