A/HRC/28/58 work of the Special Rapporteur. The Convention has had an overwhelmingly positive reception; since 2006, it has been ratified or acceded to by 150 States and the European Union, and the Special Rapporteur has joined other stakeholders in a call for universal ratification. This demonstrates an acceptance by the global community of the Convention as a universal standard and a collectively agreed benchmark against which progress is to be measured. 17. Owing to the participatory nature of the negotiations on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it can be argued that the Convention enjoys ipso facto a certain level of unprecedented legitimacy, accorded to it not only by a large number of States but also by the rights-holders themselves. Persons with disabilities and their representative organizations were not merely consulted in the drafting process; their expertise was recognized and valued, and they became part and parcel of the negotiating process. This had a direct impact on the text of the Convention, where participation and inclusion are present throughout, including as a general principle (art. 3), a general obligation of States parties in relation to any decision-making process (art. 4) and a specific obligation in relation to developing a national implementation and monitoring framework (art. 33). The Special Rapporteur attaches great importance to such an outstanding participatory approach and wishes to maintain and reinforce it in her work. 18. As highlighted in the outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals for persons with disabilities: the way forward, a disability-inclusive development agenda towards 2015 and beyond,13 the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has the unique strength of being a human rights instrument with a development perspective, equally protecting the rights of all persons with disabilities in all parts of the world. The Special Rapporteur sees this dual approach as a concrete result of how the disability work within the United Nations has been built up, with strong participation from stakeholders from the global South, and as a tool for promoting sustainable development, based on the standards, norms and principles of human rights, and inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur embodies the added value of working towards sustainable development from a human rights-based approach, as described in Human Rights Council resolution 26/20. In this spirit, the Special Rapporteur wishes to capitalize on both the human rights and the development agendas, to address the real challenges that persons with disabilities face in their everyday lives, in which the two cannot be separated: in situations of extreme poverty and exclusion, deprived of their most basic rights and too often with a precarious standard of life. 2. Overarching considerations of the mandate 19. The Special Rapporteur will be guided by the following overarching considerations in all aspects of her work: (a) Participation. In the spirit of the Convention and the nature of the disability movement, the Special Rapporteur aims to carry out her work in a participatory, consultative and open manner, and actively involve persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in her work. (b) Inclusiveness. The Special Rapporteur will work in an inclusive manner, aiming to ensure that the needs and concerns of persons with all different kinds of impairment are taken into equal consideration and that her work is age-sensitive, paying 13 8 General Assembly resolution 68/3.