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Back to: First Session of the Ad Hoc Committee
Documents of the First Session
A/AC.265/WP.3 English | Français | Español
Ad Hoc Committee on a Compressive and Integral International Convention on
Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
New York, 29 July-9 August 2002
Position paper by the People's Republic of China
1. Protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, showing respect for their worth and tapping their potential are important indicators of civilization and progress. Persons with disabilities must enjoy the same rights as those without disabilities, and their cause must be the subject of widespread concern.
2. Persons with disabilities want to participate in social life; they seek to grow stronger and become self-supporting, and they are capable of making a contribution to society. They are creators of society's material and spiritual wealth.
3. Persons with disabilities constitute a vulnerable group; in general their existence continues to be marked by rejection and marginalization. Laws and measures must be adopted to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities and create a better system of legislation to ensure equality, participation and sharing.
4. In formulating their educational, rehabilitation, employment and social security policies, all countries should take the specific characteristics and needs of persons with disabilities fully into account and ensure that issues relating to such persons are reflected in comprehensive national social and economic plans.
5. All countries should pay particular attention to:
(a) Improving the overall quality of life of persons with disabilities;
(b) Providing opportunities for persons with disabilities to obtain education, training, gainful employment and to participate in policy-making at all levels;
(c) Eliminating all discriminatory social attitudes towards persons with disabilities and all barriers in the areas of, inter alia, information, the law and basic infrastructure;
(d) Increasing resource allocations to ensure the equal participation of persons with disabilities.
6. The problems of persons with disabilities are social problems and also problems of development. Many of the rights of persons with disabilities can be implemented only through social development.
7. The international instruments adopted by the United Nations, such as the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, have been of major importance in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities and improving their situation. They will continue to form an integral part of the indispensable guiding principles pertaining to the cause of persons with disabilities.
8. The drafting of a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities is in keeping with the trends of mankind's social progress and development and meets the demands of the world's 600 million persons with disabilities. The international community must give high priority to actively formulating the provisions of the draft convention.
9. Some 80 per cent of all persons with disabilities live in developing countries, with many people continuing to live in poverty. The draft convention under consideration should focus on the special situation and difficulties of persons with disabilities in developing countries and should reflect the just demands of the developing countries.
10. The convention should be a programmatic document that provides broad guidance for all countries, advocating the adoption of a positive and practical approach attitude and setting out effective provisions and measures.
11. The Chinese Government attaches importance to the cause of persons with disabilities and supports the drafting by the United Nations of a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. It intends to do its utmost in the task of formulating a convention and attaining the goals of equality, participation and sharing for persons with disabilities.
12. The international community should undertake to cooperate in matters relating to persons with disabilities on the basis of the principle of experience-sharing and equal benefit. The developed countries should make allowances for the effects of the developing countries' low economic level and the incomplete state of their social security, and should take concrete steps to provide the developing countries with support and financial assistance in order to help them successfully solve the problems of people with disabilities.
13. The common efforts of all countries to advance the cause of persons with disabilities will make it possible for those persons to share in the world's material and cultural achievements.