Implement convention says human rights group

The Centre on Human Rights for Disabled People wants to see the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Until recently disability has been an overlooked or ‘forgotten’ dimension of human rights[1]. However, on the 13 December last year the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York adopted a new treaty know as the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention), and its Optional Protocol. The main purpose of the Convention is to “promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity[2]”. The historic Convention is the first human rights treaty from the UN in the 21st century.

TheCentre on Human Rights for Disabled People (COHR)

The Centre on Human Rights for Disabled People (COHR) based in Disability Action, Belfast, was set up in September 2006. The aim of the Centre is to secure the human rights of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland. The COHR believes that people with disabilities possess the same rights as the rest of the population and their lives are of equal value and worth to those non-disabled people. The COHR is working to ensure that the Convention will have a significant impact in effectively securing the human rights of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland and throughout the world and challenging the human rights violations that persist.

The objectives of the Centre are to:

• Create and sustain a sectoral coalition of human rights expertise on disability.
• Identity and deliver key campaigns to ensure the abuse of disabled people is recognised and accepted as a mainstream human rights issue.
• Develop and ensure the delivery of an effective system of accessible legal redress.
• Deliver key policy changes to promote the human rights of people with disabilities.
• Develop and mainstream a system of human rights proofing which includes disability issues and to report on the extent to which existing protection systems recognise the human rights abuses faced by disabled people.

To achieve the above objectives the COHR i setting up a network of disabled human rights activists; campaigning on issues relating to health and education; producing a range of information materials; submissions; policy documents and toolkits; responding to enquiries and reporting on service provider’s policy and practice.

Recently the COHR has produced a range of information on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Leaflets (in plain English) entitled ‘An Overview’ and ‘The Principles’ are now available for dissemination. The leaflets are also available, on request, in Easy Read, Braille, audio, large print, computer disk, or as a pdf document. A more in-depth briefing paper on the Convention is also available.