Preamble
The States Parties to this Convention:
- Keeping in mind the fundamental human rights and human dignity and values asserted by the Charter of the United Nations, and determining to promote the great social progress and better living standards of all;
- Reaffirming the general principles universally accepted that all human beings are equal in dignity and entitled to all fundamental rights;
- Recalling that the Declaration on Rights of Disabled Persons has accorded that persons with disabilities are entitled to equal human dignity and rights and should not be discriminated against;
- Affirming the fundamental principles of equality, participation and sharing of persons with disabilities and the specific technical norms for protecting and advancing rights of persons with disabilities by the World Program of Action for Disabled Persons and Standard Rules of Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities;
- Noting with concern the reality that although with all of these efforts, the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities are still far from being fully realized, in both developed and developing countries;
- Recognizing the necessity of specific efforts to be taken for the realization of the fundamental rights, inter alia, the rights to subsistence and development, of persons with disabilities as the most disadvantaged group accounting for one tenth of the world population;
- Noting the current trends of international disability movement, in particular the appeal for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in Beijing Declaration in 2000 by leaders of major international organizations of disabled persons;
- Emphasizing the responsibility of States in eliminating obstacles and barriers in all spheres of political, social, economic and cultural life and promoting and safeguarding the rights of persons with disabilities and its realization;
Hereby agree as follows:
Article 1
The Convention aims at recognizing, protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, eliminating all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities, promoting the full participation of persons with disabilities in social life with equal opportunity, encouraging international cooperation to achieve the goals of this Convention.
Article 2
For the purpose of this Convention,
- "Disability" means a functional status of human individual, which is the outcome of the interaction between the individual and the society and environment, manifested as physical, sensory, mental, intellectual impairment that limits the capacity to perform daily life and social participation and which can be aggravated by the economic and social environment.
- " Discrimination against persons with disabilities", means any forms of distinction treatment, exclusion or restriction based on a disability, which has the effect of impairing the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.
Article 3
The States Parties should adopt legislative measures to recognize the rights of persons with disabilities, to eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities and to improve status of disabled persons, including:
- To incorporate the principle of equality and non-discrimination for all people in their national legislations, amend or abolish any legislation that permits the contrary;
- To encourage in their national legislations the independence of persons with disabilities and for the full participation in economic, social, cultural and political life of persons with disabilities on equal footing.
The positive or compensatory legislation or public policy adopted by the States Parties aimed at providing preferential treatments to persons with disabilities for accelerating the achievement of de facto equality of persons with disabilities shall not be considered discrimination as defined in this Convention.
Article 4
States Parties recognize the political rights of persons with disabilities, and shall take measures to ensure the full participation in political life of persons with disabilities, especially:
- To guarantee the enjoyment of right to elect and to be elected of persons with disabilities, and for this purpose, to include in election mechanisms the use of special and necessary instruments and technologies for various needs of people with disabilities;
- To guarantee the equal right to participation of persons with disabilities in positions of political parties, civil organizations and public administration.
- To guarantee the right to association of organizations by persons with disabilities in accordance with domestic laws and to provide necessary support in this respect;
- To guarantee the participation of persons with disability and their organizations in all decision-making process concerning the persons with disabilities.
Article 5
States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to the enjoyment of accessible physical environment, information and communication, and shall take measures to ensure their freedom, independence and full participation in all kinds of social life, especially:
- Accessible public buildings, roads and facilities for public usage, to accommodate the access and utilization of these facilities and services for persons with disabilities;
- Public transportation facility and services shall be so designed and installed to accommodate the access, movement and utilization of persons with disabilities;
- Public residence or those built with public funds must be built or renovated into non-handicapping ones to accommodate the usage of residents of all types of disabilities. Private sectors shall be encouraged to take accessibility into consideration when they build or renovate their residence, to provide more optional opportunities for residents with disabilities.
- Appropriate technologies shall be used for persons with disabilities for their access to public information and services;
- Encourage the mass media to take measures to make their services accessible to persons with disabilities;
- Advance the research, development and promotion of new technologies suitable for persons with disabilities.
Article 6
States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education, and shall take measures to gradually realize this right on basis of equality, in particular:
- To ensure the education of persons with disabilities incorporated into national compulsory educational program and implemented effectively;
- To promote inclusive education by encouraging mainstream educational institutes to accept students with disabilities and providing teaching plans, curricula and textbooks suitable to the needs of students with disabilities ;
- To ensure quality education for those who choose or need special education due to their own reasons, by facilitating special educational institution;
- To develop vocational training with provision of practical skills for persons with disabilities;
- To ensure students with disabilities who meet entry requirements admitted by higher educational institutes and not declined based on disability;
- To guarantee the provision of continued training of special human resources and special educational allowance facilitating the education for persons with disabilities, whether in general or in other special ways;
Article 7
States Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to medical and rehabilitation services needed, and shall take measures, especially:
- To conduct research, development and application of new technologies in the field of rehabilitation;
- To establish in hospitals or run separate and special institutes for rehabilitation to provide medical treatment and training;
- To provide all kinds of rehabilitation services to communities resided by persons with disabilities;
- To guarantee that all concerned medical and rehabilitation professionals technically trained and qualified;
- To provide necessary information for persons with disabilities and their relatives so that they can participate in decision-making concerning their treatment program;
- To effectively supervise over all public and private heath care institutes so that treatment and rehabilitation services will be provided in line with the requirements and the autonomy and dignity of persons with disabilities;
- To support the development, production, supply and maintenance of rehabilitation apparatus, assistive devices and other special items for persons with disabilities.
Article 8
State Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to employment, job-seeking and remuneration for work on equal basis, and shall take measures, especially:
- To guarantee persons with disabilities to participate in labor market under equal condition and equal pay for equal work by eradicating any discriminatory regulations and practices that restrict or deny persons with disabilities in job-seeking, job retention and professional promotion;
- To adopt legislative measures to ensure that all employers must employ a certain percentage of personnel with disabilities, those failure of doing so must pay compensatory fees for the purpose of promoting the employment of persons with disabilities, incentive measures such as taxation redemption or deduction shall be in place for those which hire persons with disabilities as required or even better than required;
- To give a number of selected products or services appropriate to persons with disabilities for exclusive operation;
- To ensure policy and funding support to self-employed persons with disabilities in business;
- To stipulate employers' obligations to provide disabled employees with necessary physical work conditions and security at workplace;
- To guarantee that persons with disabilities at workplace enjoy equal treatment in safety and protection, on-duty training, vacation with pay and dispute resolving process;
Article 9
States Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to social security, insurance and welfare, and shall take measures, especially:
- To guarantee that persons with disabilities shall be included in national social security and other pubic welfare system, considering more preferential treatment in particular for those unemployed, pregnant, sick, aged and retired persons with disabilities;
- To incorporate persons with disabilities into all kinds of insurance programs and eradicate all discriminatory provisions against persons with disabilities;
- To provide care and relief to those persons with disabilities with no employable expectation, no caregivers and no financial resources to support their basic living needs;
- To guarantee that persons with disabilities not to be deprived of any opportunity to enjoy social security services due to their lack of stable or full time job;
- To guarantee the minimum living standard of persons with disabilities in poverty and give special benefit and assistance to those in special difficulties;
Article 10
States Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to full participation in social, cultural, sports and recreation life, and shall take measures, especially:
- To guarantee all kinds of public facilities and venues of culture, arts, recreation, tourism and sports open to persons with disabilities; abolish any discriminatory practices;
- To provide accessible facilities and services for persons with disabilities through building non-handicapping environment,
- To encourage and promote persons with disabilities to participate in cultural, arts and sports activities and in national and international tournaments specially organized for persons with disabilities;
- To support special arts of persons with disabilities to tap with their potentiality in area of arts;
- To establish research funds and incentive policies of culture, arts, tourism and sports for persons with disabilities.
Article 11
States Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to marriage and family life, and shall take measures, especially:
- To ensure no discrimination against persons with disabilities in their marriage, re-production, family life and inherited entitlements;
- To criminalize domestic violence against family members with disabilities;
- To guarantee the persons with disabilities the access to sexuality education and family planning services needed;
- To provide pregnant women with disabilities medical guidance and supervision needed on equal basis and to respect their rights of choice of their autonomy;
Article 12
States Parties shall respect, promote and guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities in all legal proceedings, and shall take measures, especially:
- To recognize that hatred crime against persons with disabilities is a aggravated criminal behavior;
- To adopt measures to guarantee the enjoyment of full rights of persons with disabilities in all legal proceedings and the realization of the rights;
- To respect the dignity of persons with disabilities in proceedings;
- To provide services of interpreting, translation, sign language to persons with disabilities and free legal assistance to those in economic difficulties;
- To establish protective services and compensatory mechanism for crime victims with disabilities;
Article 13
States Parties shall take necessary administrative measures to promote overall improvement of status of persons with disabilities and to realize all rights of persons with disabilities, in particular:
- To establish a national coordinating body composed by major governmental departments and organizations of persons with disabilities of each State Party, to work out national policy concerning disability, to coordinate actions and to monitor the implementation of the Convention of that state;
- To incorporate disability issues into overall national economic and social development programs, to guarantee the financial inputs, and to ensure the programs to be implemented;
- To collect disability-related information through national census and other means, and to develop specific statistic data-collection mechanism related to persons with disabilities;
- To encourage mass media and educational system to advocate positive image of persons with disabilities in order to eliminate prejudice towards persons with disabilities and to enhance public awareness concerning the rights, needs and capability of persons with disabilities;
- To take necessary actions to eliminate causes leading to or aggravating disabilities as such poverty, malnutrition, environmental pollution, traffic and industrial accidents, drug abuse and alcohol addictive, lack of medical care and services during pregnancy and armed conflicts.
Article 14
For effective implementation of the Convention, it is encouraged to carry out international cooperation. For this purpose:
- Relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations incorporate disability issues into the their mandates, taking into consideration of the needs of persons with disabilities as priorities in elaboration of programs;
- States Parties shall include disability issues into bilateral and multilateral cooperation framework, in particular in economic and technical aspect , to help developing countries to overcome difficulties for the purpose of realization of the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities;
- States Parties shall promote the exchange of disability-related information, technological cooperation, and share the advanced scientific and technological achievements;
- States Parties shall adopt measures to reduce or exempt tariff on imported assistive devices and special accessory items for persons with disabilities.
Article 15
- For the purpose of reviewing the progress of the States Parties in implementing its obligations specified in the Convention, a Committee of Experts on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter called "the Experts Committee") shall be established, the functions of which shall be as set forth below.
- The Committee shall consist of 18 experts of high moral standing and recognized competence in the area of protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, these experts shall be elected by States Parties and serve in their personal capacity; the election of such experts shall have full account of demographic, geographic situation, various development levels and types of disabilities.
- Members of the Experts Committee shall be elected by secret ballots from a list of persons nominated by States Parties. Each State Party may propose one person from its own nationals.
- The initial election of the Experts Committee shall be held, at the latest, six months following the dated on which the Convention enters into force. At least four months prior to the date of each election, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall address a letter to the States Parties inviting them to submit their nominations within a period of three months. The Secretary-General shall prepare a list, in alphabetical order, of all the persons nominated, indicating the States Parties that proposed them, and shall send it to the States Parties.
- The election of the Experts Committee members shall be held at a meeting of the States Parties convened by the Secretary-General and held at United Nations Headquarters. At that meeting, for which a quorum shall be constituted by the attendance of two thirds of the States Parties, those candidates who obtain the highest number of votes and an absolute majority of votes of the representatives of States Parties present and voting shall be considered elected to the Experts Committee.
- Experts Committee members shall serve for a term of four years. They may be re-elected if their candidature is put forward again. Notwithstanding, the mandate of 9 of the members elected in the first round shall expire after the period of two years. Immediately following the initial election, the Experts Committee chairperson shall chose the names of these 9 persons by lot.
- In order to fulfill casual vacancies, the State Party whose expert has terminated his or her functions as an Experts Committee member shall appoint another member from among its nationals, subject to the approval of the Experts Committee.
Article 16
The main functions of the Experts Committee are as set forth below.
- The Experts Committee shall evaluate the national reports submitted annually by States Parties on the progress and difficulties in implementing this Convention.
- The Experts Committee shall make general proposals to State Parties on further advancing the implementation of this Convention.
- The Experts Committee shall invite specialized agencies, administrative departments and non-governmental organizations to participate in the research on the implementation of the Convention.
- The Experts Committee shall invite special bodies and other organizations of the United Nations to propose reports on implementation of the Convention out of their specific mandates and on their work area;
- The Experts Committee may suggest areas of cooperation among States Parties, and between these and the specialized agencies and other competent organs, that will facilitate implementation of this Convention. To that end, the Experts Committee shall make its recommendations to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- The Experts Committee may seek technical assistance from the United Nations organs at any stage of the report evaluation process or during the implementation of its final recommendations.
Article 17
- The Experts Committee shall elect its Bureau for a period of two years. Members of the Bureau may be re-elected for a further two-year period.
- The Experts Committee shall establish its own rules of procedure.
- The Experts Committee shall normally meet at the United Nations headquarter annually for a period not exceeding two weeks to evaluate reports submitted in compliance with the item one of article 18 of this Convention.
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall provide the personnel and services necessary for the effective performance of the functions of the Experts Committee under this Convention.
- Considering the importance of the functions of the Experts Committee and subject to the approval of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the members of the Committee shall receive emoluments from United Nations funds in a manner and under conditions to be determined by the General Assembly.
Article 18
- States Parties undertake to submit to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for consideration by the Experts Committee, a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or any other measures they have adopted to give effect to the provisions of this Convention.
- The reports submitted by States Parties must specify progress achieved and difficulties affecting fulfillment of their obligations under the present Convention. They must likewise contain sufficient information on difficulties encountered in its implementation.
- States Parties shall submit their initial report for consideration by the Experts Committee within two years following the entry into force of this Convention, thereafter submit periodic reports every four years.
Article 19
- Any State Party to this Convention may propose an amendment and file it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- The Secretary-General shall thereupon communicate the proposed amendment to States Parties, with a request that they indicate whether they favor a conference of States Parties for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposals.
- In the event that, within four months from the date of such communication, at least one third of the States Parties favor such a conference, the Secretary-General shall convene the conference under the auspices of the United Nations.
- Any amendment adopted by a majority of the States Parties present and voting at the conference shall be submitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly of the United Nations for approval.
- Any amendment adopted shall enter into force once it has been approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations and accepted by a two-thirds majority of the States Parties.
- When amendment enters into force, it shall be binding on those States Parties which have accepted it, other States Parties shall remain bound by the provisions of the present Convention and earlier amendments which they have accepted.
Article 20
- The Secretary General of the United Nations shall receive and circulate to all States the text of reservations made by States at the time of ratification or accession;
- A reservation incompatible with the object and purpose of this Convention shall not be permitted;
- Reservations may be withdrawn at any time by virtue of notification to the Secretary General of the United Nations who shall, in turn, notify all States to the same effect. The notification shall take effect as of the date of its reception.
Article 21
- This Convention shall be open for signature by all United Nations Member States.
- This Convention shall be open for ratification or accession by all United Nations Member States.
- The General Secretary of the United Nations shall periodically deliver information on the number of signatures, ratifications and accession to this Convention, as well as on the efforts made and steps taken for its promotion and dissemination.
Article 22
This Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date of the 2oth instruments of ratification or accession has been deposited with the Secretary General of the United Nations. For each State ratifying or acceding to this Convention after the 20th instruments of ratification or accession has been deposited, the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day following the date on which the State in question has deposited its own instrument of ratification or accession.
Article 23
This Convention, whose texts in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Secretary General of the United Nations.
The Secretary General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the Convention to all States Parties.
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