A/HRC/26/24 15. Côte d’Ivoire: The Human Rights Division of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire has participated actively, through the provision of technical advice, in the Task Force for the ratification of the Convention established by the Confédération des organisations des personnes handicapées de Côte d’Ivoire (COPHCI), a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and associations working for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities, including efforts to support the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Public Liberties. As a result of these joint efforts, Côte d’Ivoire ratified the Convention on 10 January 2014. The Human Rights Division has also widely disseminated the Convention and provided training/briefing sessions for representatives of NGOs specializing in the rights of persons with disabilities, and will continue to support advocacy for the establishment of a coordination mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the Convention. 16. Ethiopia: OHCHR organized two disability equality training sessions in cooperation with ILO to support government officials and service providers on the human rights-based approach to disability and the Convention. 17. Guinea-Bissau: The Human Rights Section of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea Bissau (UNIOGBIS) supported extensively the signing and ratification of the Convention, holding several meetings to explain the importance of acceding to the Convention and recognizing the treaty body monitoring mechanisms. As a result, the National Popular Assembly signed the Convention and its Optional Protocol in September 2013, with the intention of submitting the two instruments for ratification after general elections in April 2014. 18. Liberia: OHCHR supported the National Commission on Disabilities with developing a National Strategy for the Implementation of the Convention in the context of the Agenda for Transformation and the National Human Rights Action Plan, which as a result was validated in September 2013 and launched in December 2013. OHCHR is providing technical assistance through bi-monthly working sessions with members of a Human Rights and Disability Task Force on its roll-out and monitoring. OHCHR is also participating in the coordination of field offices of the United Nations Mission in Liberia to conduct capacity-building activities for government and civil society on evaluating, measuring and monitoring progress on the implementation of the Convention; advocacy and budget monitoring; and applying a human rights-based approach to United Nations programming and national development frameworks. This has contributed to the adoption of (i) human rights and (ii) persons with disabilities and disadvantages as two new crosscutting themes in the country’s second Poverty Reduction Strategy (2013-2017). 19. Niger: In order to ensure an improved understanding by the public of national, regional and international norms protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and promote further review, the collective of organizations defending human rights and democracy and the Niger Federation of Persons with Disabilities held awareness-raising activities in March 2013 on the rights of persons with disabilities. The activities were organized in partnership with the OHCHR Human Rights Advisor’s unit in Niger and the Ministry of Justice, with funding by UNDP. Awareness-raising campaigns and conferences were organized on national and international legislation on the rights of persons with disabilities in six regions of the country. 20. Senegal: During 2013, the OHCHR West Africa Regional Office in partnership with Handicap International and other stakeholders provided technical advice and facilitated training sessions to authorities in relation to the Convention and its Optional Protocol. 21. Sierra Leone: The Human Rights Component of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Mission in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), in collaboration with OHCHR, supported the Government in the process of drafting a persons with disabilities Act. The 6