RI's Executive Committee and Assembly adopted on 9 September a new Charter calling for promulgation of a UN Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities.
It is well known that earlier attempts to establish a Convention were only backed by a limited number of UN member states, and were not successful. RI has researched the level of support and found a much more positive climate towards the concept at this time. We know that defining and administering a Convention will involve energy and resources, but if that was an insurmountable problem we would never have created the Convention on Human Rights (now 50 years old) or the Convention on the Rights of the Child, established 10 years ago and now ratified by 190 countries.
Accessibility Standards
in Development Assistance
There are too many examples still of development projects which are designed
in ways which prevent full participation of people with disabilities, discriminating
in ways which would be unacceptable or even illegal in countries the funding
is sent from. This is especially shortsighted in localities where the incidence
of disability among the population is high because of recent armed conflict.
The Charter calls for the inclusion of access standards in all international
programs to assist economic or social infrastructure development, including
technology and communications infrastructures, to ensure that people with
disabilities are fully included in the life of their communities.
Members of the World Planning Group for the Charter
* Lord Morris of Manchester, former UK Minister for the Disabled * Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia * Ms Jameela M. Al-Qasimi of the United Arab Emirates * H.E. Chief Emeka Anyaoku, The Commonwealth Secretary-General * Justin Dart, Former Chairman of the U.S. President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities * Deng Pufang, Chairman, China Disabled Persons' Federation * Professor Sir Harry Fang, of Hong Kong SAR * Professor Stephen Hawking from Britain * Shri D.K. Manavalan, of India * Anatoly I. Ossadchikh, Minister for Disabled People, Russia * Prince Raad Bin Zeid, of Jordan * Archbishop Desmond Tutu, of South Africa.
The Charter was originally intended as an opening declaration for a much longer document, but the two have now been separated. The ãLong documentä, with much more detail about the issues raised, should be finalised within the next few months. It intended that it will be ratified at the Assembly and officially launched at the RI World Congress in Rio de Janeiro in August 2000.
The Charter can be read in full at Rehabilitation International's web site: www.Rehab-International.org