The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force on 3 May 2008, after receiving its 20th ratification. This marked a major milestone in the effort to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
The Convention and its Optional Protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006 and were opened for signature on 30 March 2007. There are currently 129 signatories to the Convention, 71 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 26 ratifications of the Convention and 16 ratifications of the Optional Protocol.
The Convention marks a "paradigm shift" in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.
The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights, as well as areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.
To read the full Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol, please visit: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml. More information on the Convention is available in several languages at http://www.un.org/disabilities/index.asp.