What the UN can do for the disabled.

• Author: Aboudi, Adnan Al

Disability was an issue at the periphery of the United Nations agenda until 2001 when the General Assembly established the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The disability rights issue is now officially on the world Organization's agenda.

The process has been unlike any other in the United Nations negotiation framework. The people most concerned with the content of the treaty--those who will benefit from its provisions--are at the centre of the negotiations.

Since 2002, I have worked intensively in different countries to promote the Convention and increase awareness among persons with disabilities and their Governments. In 2003, I was elected as one of forty experts comprising the Working Group of the Ad Hoc Committee, which aimed to prepare and present a draft text of the Convention. I was honoured to represent persons with disabilities of West Asia and to bring their perspective to the drafting process.

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The fourth Ad Hoc Committee session, held from 23 August to 3 September 2004, was attended by many Arab States and persons with disabilities. I consider it a huge progress since the first session in 2002 when I was the only disabled person representing the Arab world.

While persons with disabilities have the same rights as all other human beings, these rights are not effectively enjoyed by and not easily accessible to them, because the international community does not address or understand their needs and rights. As one of the disabled, I see the Convention as a dream, and the United Nations, by undertaking this initiative, is fulfilling this dream. However, the process does not end with the decision to negotiate the Convention or even its adoption. The United Nations system has a significant role to play in supporting the...