Convention on Rights of Disabled Persons Needs Broader Ratification: UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 – UN experts called on all governments to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol on Wednesday, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Catalina Devandas, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, chief of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and Lenin Moreno, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility, called "on all stakeholders – Member States, the Human Rights Council, UN agencies, national human rights institutions, organizations of persons with disabilities and broader civil society – to work towards universal ratification of the CRPD and its Optional Protocol" in a joint statement, as published on the United Nations Human Rights website.

"Since 2006, the Convention has witnessed an impressive number of ratifications in a short period of time," the UN officials noted, adding that it proves the "importance that States attach to filling the protection gap that previously rendered persons with disabilities invisible in human rights efforts".

CRPD was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 to ensure the full implementation of rights of persons with disabilities and to ensure their equality under the law. More than 150 states are parties to the convention. The United States, however, failed to ratify the convention.

The Optional Protocol to CRPD stipulates that its parties can recognize the competence of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to consider complaints from individuals.