 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Background Documents | Article 1 Background
Seventh Session | Fourth
Session | Third Session
Working
Group | References
Algeria
China
European Union
India
Kenya
International Disability Caucus
Japan Disability Forum
People with Disability Australia
Article 1
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect and fulfill the full
and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons
with disabilities in order to fully integrate them in their society and enable
them to contribute in all its aspects with dignity.
Back to top
The purpose of the present convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Option 1: The purpose of the present convention is to protect and promote the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.
(Note: China proposes to use the wording of the original title, which was adopted by General Assembly and has been used as the negotiation paper during the past sessions of the ADC, as the chapeau of this article.)
Option 2: The purpose of the present convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights including the right to development and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
(Note: The present convention considers both human rights and social development aspects of persons with disabilities. Thus we propose to give reference to development aspect in the purpose article.)
Option 3: The purpose of the present convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, and to promote their full development and respect for their inherent dignity.
(Note: the reason is as for Option 2.)
Back to top
Article 1
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect, and fulfil the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities.
EU Proposal:
As the EU proposes a shorter title, the EU proposes retaining this article and rewording as follows:
“The purpose of the Convention shall be to ensure the full and equal
enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities.”
Back to top
Article 1
We feel that the convention should have brief title for its easy reference.
Thus the title “International Convention on Rights and Dignity of Persons
with Disabilities” adequately captures the essence of the convention.
We feel that there should be a separate article on purpose of the Convention
clearly bringing out the objective of the convention. We support the Chair’s
text on this article. We have listened to the debate where there have been
suggestions that the word ‘dignity’ should not be in the title
of the Convention. We are flexible on this issue. We, however, feel that
there should be mention of word ‘dignity’ either in the title
or in the article relating to the purpose.
Back to top
Article 1
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect, and fulfil the full
and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons
with disabilities
Back to top
Non-governmental organizations
INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY CAUCUS
Chairman’s Text (as amended by the
International Disability Caucus)
Article 1
(JUSTIFICATION FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE ARTICLE: The Chair questions in
his cover letter the relevance of the article, as it is not found in other
similar Conventions. He also raises the argument that the title of the Convention
itself covers the topics addressed in this article so a purpose may not required.
This argument is unfounded, since the final title of the Convention may evolve
into a different, shorter one. Moreover, the title of the Convention alone
is not legally binding, whereas the text within it is.
Third, the IDC has consistently argued that this Convention should be clear
and accessible and a purpose helps in that direction. The IDC therefore
supports the retention of this article.)
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect, and (REPLACE “fulfil” BY “ensure”)
the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms
of (ADD: “all”) persons with disabilities.
Back
to top
Article 1
Comment:
1. Article 1, which lays down the purpose of the Convention, revised
Article 1 of the Working Group text and now provides: “The purpose
of this Convention is to promote, protect, and fulfill the full and equal
enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with
disabilities.”
In the Covering Letter from the Chairman, questions have been raised regarding
whether this article is necessary at all. That is, since the title of the
Convention (“protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of
persons with disabilities”) substantively implies the purpose of the
Convention, and since other major human rights conventions do not have provisions
on the purpose of the convention, the reason for the inclusion of this Article
is called into question. Regarding this point, we are of the opinion that
the inclusion of Article 1 (purpose) in the Convention is not absolutely
unacceptable. Although not a human rights convention, conventions such as
the United Nations Charter do have provisions on the purpose of the convention,
and although there is a difference between international law and domestic
law, it is common to state the purpose of the law in domestic legislation.
However, Article 1 of the Working Group text is a better formulation than
Article 1 of the Chairman’s text. The purpose of the Convention needs
to be discussed further in the direction of strengthening the text of the
former draft.
2. The connection with the title of the Convention must also be kept in
mind when discussing the issues raised above. In the negotiations thus far,
there have been proposals to simplify the current title of the Convention,
on the grounds that the current title “Comprehensive and Integral International
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons
with Disabilities” is too long. The title (naming) of the Convention
should be discussed further in correlation with Article 1 (purpose) of the
Working Group text.
Back to top
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY AUSTRALIA
Report on National Consultations
Article 1
Chair’s text
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect, and fulfil the full
and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons
with disabilities.
Participants generally supported the Chair’s Text article 1: Purpose. However, participants sought to re-affirm the strong support for the incorporation of the additional concept of ‘dignity’ into the article. This would also make it consistent with both the title and paragraph (f) of the Preamble of the convention. The article might therefore read:
Recommended text
The purpose of this Convention is to promote, protect and fulfil the dignity
and the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms by persons with disability.
Back
to top