Highlights

20th ratification of Convention on 3 April 2008 - the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol will enter into force on 3 May 2008!.

Arbour welcomes entry into force of "ground-breaking" convention on disabilities
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Read the ENABLE newsletter with updates on the Convention

The High Commissioner makes six commitments to improve the right to decent work for staff with disabilities:
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As of 21 April 2008, there have been 128 signatures to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 71 to the Optional Protocol. Twenty-five countries have ratified the Convention and fourteen countries have ratified the Optional Protocol.

Over 600 million people, or approximately 10 per cent of the world’s population, have a disability of one form or another. While their living conditions vary, they are united in one common experience – being exposed to various forms of discrimination and social exclusion.  

A dramatic shift in perspective has been taking place over the past two decades, and persons with disabilities are increasingly viewed as holders of rights. This shift to the human rights perspective, which is taking place in all economic and social systems, has been authoritatively endorsed by the United Nations. 

In 2000, the Commission on Human Rights asked the High Commissioner, in cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development, “to examine measures to strengthen the protection and monitoring of the human rights of persons with disabilities”. Following to that request, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights designed a long-term plan to enhance the recognition of the human rights dimension of disability.

• The human rights dimension of disability
• The United Nations action in the field of disability
• OHCHR's mandate