Convention on the rights of people with disability
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007.
There were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 ratification of the Convention.
This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day which marks a shift in attitudes and approaches to persons with disability.
The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit and social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorisation of persons with disability and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disability must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disability and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disability to effectively exercise their rights, in areas where their rights have been violated and where protection of rights must be reinforced.
The Australian Government ratified the Convention in July 2008 and the Committee on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities will oversee the implementation of the Convention. For more information visit the Australia Human Rights Commission website.