United Nations, Jan 08: A UN panel has begun drafting a treaty that would enable the world's 600 million disabled – from the blind and lame to the mentally ill -- to appeal to a judge when their rights are violated.
The treaty could also require governments to build wheelchair ramps and guarantee medical treatment to newborn babies with physical or mental disabilities.
A working group is meeting through January 16 to come up with a draft treaty that will be considered by all 191 UN member nations. The group comprises representatives from 27 governments, 12 advocacy groups and the South African Human Rights Commission.
The treaty would be the first to deal ''comprehensively with the rights of disabled people,'' said ambassador Don Mackay of New Zealand, the head of the working group.
“Although disabled people are just as entitled to human rights as anyone else, the application is pretty uneven,'' he said.
It would be one of the first treaties negotiated by the United Nations since the 1998 International Criminal Court treaty that created a tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, the head of the ad hoc committee that will consider the working group's draft, said ending discrimination was as much a matter of guaranteeing legal rights as trying to change cultural and social attitudes. He called it a ''moral'' and ''ethical'' issue.
The ad hoc committee will deliberate the draft of the treaty for two weeks in May and June and another two weeks in August and September, before the UN General Assembly meeting later in September, Gallegos said.
Potential sticking points include whether there will be a system to monitor abuses and what shape that would take.
Also up for debate is how wide-ranging the definition of ''disabled'' will be. For instance, Gallegos said at one time people who wore eyeglasses were considered disabled and were banned in some cases from flying airplanes and serving in the military.
Many of the issues will pit the developed world against developing nations, which Gallegos said were often more concerned about feeding people than spending money to make a building accessible to people in wheelchairs.
Bureau Report
