A/HRC/4/75
page 3
Introduction
1.
By its resolution 2005/65, the Commission on Human Rights requested the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to report to the Commission at its
sixty-second session on progress in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the
study on human rights and disability and on the achievement of the objectives set forth in the
programme of work of the Office in relation to the human rights of persons with disabilities. In
its decision 2/102, the Human Rights Council decided to request the Secretary-General of the
United Nations and the High Commissioner to continue with the fulfilment of their activities, in
accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to
update the relevant reports and studies. The present report is submitted in response to these
requests.
2.
The 2002 OHCHR study on “Human rights and disability: the current use and future
potential of United Nations human rights instruments in the context of disability” (the study),
focused on the work carried out by the (then) six core United Nations human rights treaty bodies
to advance the equal effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by
persons with disabilities. The study concluded that, despite their considerable potential, the
United Nations human rights treaties had not been fully used in the context of disability. In
order to enhance the future use of the existing human rights treaties and mechanisms, the study
addressed a wide range of recommendations to States parties, treaty bodies, the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Commission on Human Rights, national human
rights institutions and civil society.1
3.
In the context of its recommendations, the study considered the possible drafting of a new
convention on human rights and disability. The study concluded by noting that such a
convention “would mark a huge step forward and should not undermine but underpin the
protections provided in the existing six human rights treaties”. In 2001, the General Assembly
established an Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on
the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disability (the Ad Hoc
Committee) which met for eight sessions and submitted a draft text to the General Assembly for
action. On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly adopted the International Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“the Convention”) and its Optional Protocol, as
contained in its resolution 61/106 (see A/61/611, annex).
4.
Given the importance of this new development, including in relation to the
implementation of the recommendations of the study, the present report seeks to provide
information to the Human Rights Council on the new Convention. Consequently, the report is
divided into three sections. The first section provides an update on OHCHR activities
during 2006 in relation to human rights and disabilities. The second section provides a detailed
1
G. Quinn and T. Degener, “Human rights and disability: the current use and future potential
of United Nations human rights instruments in the context of disability”, HR/PUB/02/1,
United Nations, New York and Geneva, 2002.
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