Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities Fact sheet

What is the Convention?

A convention is a written treaty between States, who have agreed to abide by certain obligations on a matter that is prescribed in the treaty.  The convention becomes legally binding on a State once they have signed and ratified the convention. Once a convention comes into force (usually after a set number of States have ratified the convention), it joins with other conventions and legal principles that constitute international law. The role of the United Nations is to monitor and report on States’ performance in meeting their obligations.

This Convention elaborates in detail the rights of disabled people and sets out a code of implementation for governments. It is a practically focussed convention. Negotiations on the convention were informed by the experiences of disabled people worldwide through the participation of their representative organisations. They clearly articulated the challenges, difficulties and requirements of disabled people in their interaction with society at large, and it is those areas on which the Convention focuses. It will be the benchmark for future standards and action.

The Convention establishes a shift in thinking on how governments should treat disabled people. It states that disabled people should have opportunities, choices and rights on the same basis as non-disabled people. It says that disabled people should not experience any discrimination on the basis of their impairment. Disabled people should be able to enjoy the full range of human rights that other people enjoy.

Why was another Convention needed?

Over the 1990s, disability non-government organisations and States recognised there was a need for an international convention specific to disabled people. This was in response to existing international human rights instruments failing to ensure that disabled people enjoy the same rights, opportunities and choices as non-disabled people.

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights state what all people have the right to, or what all people have the right to be free from.
However, in the time since these conventions were adopted, it has become clear that these rights have not been universally applied to all people. Governments have tended to make enforcement of rights a lesser priority for some population groups, including disabled people.

In part, this was because of negative stereotypes about disabled people. It was not recognised that disabled people have similar needs and wants to live an ordinary life as other people. Instead, often disabled people were treated as though they were sick and needing treatment, so they could become healthy and ‘normal’. This approach does not pay attention to conditions in society that contribute to a person’s experience of disability, such as poor access and negative attitudes.

Setting up conventions that are specific to marginalised populations who experience discrimination has been one solution to the problem of States not ensuring all people equally enjoy human rights. These conventions make it explicit that States have obligations to ensure these people can enjoy rights on the same basis as other people.

Some examples are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC). These conventions seek to address the experience of discrimination and marginalisation of women and children, respectively. The development of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was influenced by the history of these earlier conventions.

Experience of multiple disadvantages

• The United Nations has collated statistics on disabled people around the world, which show that disabled people experience significant and multiple disadvantages compared to non-disabled people:
• the World Bank estimates that 20 per cent of the world’s poorest people have an impairment, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged
• mortality for disabled children may be as high as 80 per cent in some countries, where under-five mortality as a whole has decreased below 20 per cent
• according to UNICEF, 30 per cent of street youths have an impairment
• disabled people are more likely to be victims of violence or rape, according to a 2004 British study, and less likely to obtain police intervention, legal protection or preventive care
• disabled women and girls are particularly vulnerable to abuse
• research indicates that violence against disabled children occurs at annual rates at least 1.7 times greater than for their non-disabled peers
• ninety per cent of disabled children in developing countries do not attend school
• the global literacy rate for disabled adults is as low as 3 per cent, and 1 per cent for disabled women
• unemployment amongst disabled persons is as high as 80 per cent in some countries.
• Disabled people have been characterised by the United Nations as “the world’s largest minority”. It is estimated that around ten per cent of the world’s population, or 650 million people, experience disability. This figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the growing numbers of people living to older age.

Impairments also result from tragic developments, such as armed conflict. It is estimated that for every child killed in warfare, three are injured and incur a permanent impairment.

For more statistics on disabled people around the world, go to the United Nations website.

What does the Convention say?

It marks a “paradigm shift” in thinking about disability. Instead of disability being a health or social welfare matter, the new approach is to deal with it as a human rights issue. This approach acknowledges that societal barriers and prejudices are themselves disabling. It is by removing these barriers that the participation of disabled people in society will be achieved.

The Convention is practically focussed because it was so closely informed by the experiences of disabled people worldwide. They clearly articulated the challenges, difficulties and requirements of disabled people in their interactions with society at large, and it is those areas - and they are many - on which the Convention focuses.

The Convention spans a wide range of real-life issues in considerable detail, including accessibility, personal mobility, health, education, employment, habilitation and rehabilitation, participation in political life, equality and non-discrimination.

The Convention will be the benchmark for future standards and action.

There are several recurring themes throughout the Convention. One is inclusiveness in the community, which is a central element. Too often, disabled people have been treated separately - and have been separated off - from other parts of the community. Too often there has been an automatic fallback on institutionalisation. This is not normally in the best interests of the person concerned, nor is it usually in the best interests of the community as a whole. Disabled people, like other people, usually flourish best within the community, rather than outside it, and have a contribution to make.

A second theme, closely related to the first, is bringing about a change in attitudes and getting rid of negative stereotyping. The Convention sets out various actions to be taken by States in this respect.  The best way of changing stereotypes is for people to have real interaction with disabled people in their daily lives. However, there is also an important role for governments and communities to play in promoting attitude change.

A third theme is accessibility. This can be physical accessibility to buildings, or it can be accessibility in other ways, for example providing signage in Braille, or providing accessible information and communication technologies, such as through universal design.

The Convention also deals with related issues such as ensuring personal mobility, where that is a problem, and facilitating independent living.

Specific rights covered in the Convention include:

• equal protection before the law
• liberty and security of the person
• freedom from torture
• protection of the integrity of the person
• liberty of movement and nationality
• freedom of expression
• respect for privacy
• right to participation in public life
• freedom from exploitation
• respect for home and the family
• right to live in the community
• right to education
• right to life
• right to health
• habilitation and rehabilitation
• right to work
• right to an adequate standard of living
• right to participate in cultural life.

What are States required to do?

States that ratify the Convention will need to ensure their current and future legislation and policies are consistent with its articles and treat disabled people on the same basis as other people. When the Convention becomes international law, it can be referred to by courts in their decision making.

A new disability committee has been created by the Convention to monitor implementation by States. Each State that ratifies the Convention will need to report to this committee regularly, in a similar way to how they report on other conventions.

What are the costs involved?

A concern that may be raised about the Convention’s quite wide-ranging provisions is the cost of implementation.

The Convention is a hybrid convention, containing civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights. These rights are not separated out in the Convention, because it is important to avoid creating any hierarchy of rights. It is also important because many of the individual articles themselves contain both categories of rights.

The point is that whereas States must guarantee civil and political rights straight away, they may not be in a position to guarantee economic, social and cultural rights immediately.

The standard of implementation for economic, social and cultural rights is “progressive realisation” to the maximum of a State’s available resources. That means that those rights must be progressively implemented. However, it is not a free pass for governments. There are still two important elements of those rights that are immediately binding: 

• governments must ensure that those rights are applied on a non-discriminatory basis
• governments must undertake concrete steps to implement those rights. They cannot simply sit on their hands and decide to do nothing. But it does mean that governments will not be taking on immediate and overwhelming financial obligations in the economic social and cultural areas that they will simply be unable to meet.

At the practical level, many costs, such as accessibility, are much less if done at the inception. It is much easier - and less expensive - to provide accessibility by way of ramps and wider doorways at the design stage of a building than it is by retrofitting. The key is to make an early start, and the sooner that governments take this into account in their planning the less the overall cost will be.  

Often, the cost is actually less than is envisaged by conventional wisdom and its negative stereotyping. A 2003 study by Rutgers University found that disabled people continue to be vastly underrepresented in the US workplace, and a common reason given for not hiring them was the fear of costly special facilities. However, a US survey of employers conducted in 2003 found that the average costs of accommodations was only $500 or less; 73 per cent of employers reported that their employees did not require special facilities at all. It is also noteworthy that a US study a year earlier had reported that disabled employees have better retention rates, which reduced the high cost of turn-over.

What does the Convention require New Zealand to do?

New Zealand has had an international leadership role in negotiations on the Convention. This demonstrates a commitment to promoting disabled people’s quality of life, on the same basis as other people.

On 30 March 2007, New Zealand was one of the first States to sign up to the Convention. The next step for New Zealand is ratification. This will follow through on our commitments and demonstrate continued leadership with the Convention.

This next step involves government officials reviewing New Zealand legislation and policy to ensure there are no significant inconsistencies against the Convention. This review process is happening during 2007. If there are inconsistencies, then steps will need to be taken to resolve the difference.

Ratification will only happen when the inconsistencies are resolved.

The New Zealand ratification process also involves a Parliamentary stage, where a select committee examines the Convention and its implications. However, it is up to the Government to decide whether or not to ratify a convention.

Through the negotiations, New Zealand used the experience of the New Zealand Disability Strategy implementation to inform its participation. The underlying approach in the Convention is the same as that of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. Therefore, many of the changes completed or underway that have been influenced by the New Zealand Disability Strategy will also meet the requirements of the Convention.

There have been many achievements in promoting the participation of disabled people in recent years, such as passing the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006, and supporting increasing numbers of disabled people into employment.

However, more work needs to be done. The Convention will help promote action to remove existing barriers that disabled people experience in living their lives, and reinforce the New Zealand Disability Strategy implementation.

The government sees that promotion, monitoring and reporting on implementation of the Convention will use the existing mechanisms of the New Zealand Disability Strategy, which is led by the Office for Disability Issues.

Further information

Convention text
About the Convention
History of New Zealand’s involvement in the Convention development