A/HRC/4/49 page 18 63. As already mentioned, I am also particularly pleased that, on 20 December 2006, the General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Convention was opened for signature in Paris on 6 February 2007, at which I had the pleasure to participate. 64. This important new legal instrument closes gaps in international human rights law by making explicit the prohibition of enforced disappearances. It states that no one should be subjected to enforced disappearance, and highlights that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification for such violation. 65. The Convention, by defining as victims the disappeared persons and any individuals who have suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance, affirms their right to know the truth about the circumstances of an enforced disappearance and the fate of the disappeared person, as well as the right to freedom to seek, receive and impart information to this end. The Convention requires that each State party ensure in its legal system that victims have the right to obtain reparation and prompt, fair and adequate compensation. A series of important legal obligations are enunciated relating to the prevention of enforced disappearances, and each State party is required to take appropriate measures to ensure that enforced disappearance constitutes an offence under its criminal law. Finally, the Convention stresses that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity. 66. A Committee on Enforced Disappearances is to monitor the implementation of the Convention. Some of the procedures provided for, such as the reporting procedure and the individual and inter-State complaint procedure, are analogous to those already established for other human rights treaty bodies. The new Committee will also be entitled to receive requests for urgent action on individual cases, to conduct visits with the agreement of States parties concerned, and, in case of information containing well-founded indications that enforced disappearance is being practised on a widespread or systematic basis on a territory under the jurisdiction of a State party, to urgently bring the matter to the attention of the General Assembly. 67. Finally, the General Assembly adopted by consensus, on 13 December 2006, the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, with its signing ceremony to be held in New York on 30 March 2007. My Office continued to contribute during 2006 to the finalization of the new Convention, which has benefited from the close involvement of civil society - particularly persons with disabilities and their representative organizations - as well as the unprecedented participation of national human rights institutions. The Convention clarifies the obligation of States to improve the situation of 10 per cent of the world’s population, suffering from some of the worst violations and denial of human rights. 68. At this final stage of the negotiations, my Office emphasized the provision of technical advice to the Ad Hoc Committee on the establishment of monitoring mechanisms, and I was able to address the Ad Hoc Committee again at its resumed eighth session on 5 December 2006. Office staff participated in a number of meetings organized at national level to start considering the challenges posed by implementation of the new convention, after finalization of the draft in