History

In 2001, Mexico proposed the text for Article 179, according to which, UN General Assembly had to consider opening negotiations for a Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It was, infact, in the year 2000 that the world NGO summit on disability was held in Beijing, which is where the Beijing declaration was adopted on the rights of people with disability in the new century. According to Disabled Peoples International (DPI), it was there that the call for a new human rights Convention for People with Disabilities was given.

After a debate in the UN Third Committee, a resolution (no. 56/115) to this end was adopted on 19th December 2001. One year later, an open ended working group was established. The Ad Hoc Committee become the forum in which the foundations of the Convention were laid during the following four years. The Convention was negotiated during eight sessions of an Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly from 2002 to 2006, making it the fastest negotiated human rights treaty. In August 2006, the Ad Hoc Committee unanimously adopted the text for the draft Convention.

On 13th December 2006, the UN General Assembly formally adopted by consensus the Convention and its Optional Protocol, making the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) one of the core international human rights conventions! In Secretary General Kofi Annan’s speech (delivered on his behalf by Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, Deputy Secretary-General), he noted that the Convention has “become a landmark several times over: it is the first human rights treaty to be adopted in the twenty-first century; the most rapidly negotiated human rights treaty in the history of international law; and the first to emerge from lobbying conducted extensively through the internet.”

The Convention was opened for signature on 30th March 2007 making it the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations.

On 30th March, 81 Member States and the European Community signed the Convention, which is the highest number of signatures of any human rights convention on its opening day. 44 Member States signed the Optional Protocol, and 1 Member State ratified the Convention.

India’s contributions

Initially when the Mexico proposal came up and the first discussion took place, the Government of India did not have information about it. Therefore, in the first round of discussions, there were three countries which did not support the Convention. One of them was India and the others were Iran & Pakistan. However, once the Government of India was alerted, there was no looking back.

India participated in the second Ad Hoc Committee Meeting. Decision was taken to form the working group to prepare the basic draft for the UN Convention. Out of 190 countries, only 27 countries, 12 DPOs and one human rights commission were finally selected to participate in the Working Group. India was one of them. DPI too was in the meeting. Prior to the meeting of the Working Group, countries were asked to send drafts. Only 4 countries sent drafts. Again, India was one of them. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had discussions with NGOs, lawyers and with other Ministries to finalise the draft.

During the meeting of the Working Group major consensus evolved. India’s contributions were seriously complimented by all the countries and letters were sent to Prime Minister’s Office. Before each meeting, the UN would inform the Member States. The Government held two levels of meetings and the formal responses to be tabled were finalised.

There were two areas in which India’s attempts remained unsuccessful – one was to involve parents associations. This was completely negated by the rest of the international community, except Costa Rica, Kenya and to some extent Israel. The second was to have a special focus group on persons with multiple & severe disabilities.

India’s Ratification of UNCRPD

India was amongst the 80 countries that signed their acceptance on the very first day. However, India did not ratify it on the same day even though the Union Cabinet had approved the signing and the ratification of the Convention on 29th March 2007, according to the Press Information Bureau Report. National Campaign was launched by NCPEDP in July 2007 for speedy ratification of UNCRPD. As a result, the UNCRPD was ratified by India on 1st October 2007. Read more about the campaign.

India’s Position on Optional Protocol:

The Union Cabinet in India approved the ratification of UNCRPD without the Optional Protocol.

The implication of signing the Optional Protocol is that, when a complaint is made, an independent international body can come into India and scrutinise. The Optional Protocol becomes effective and an international body comes only when all the internal remedies – National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), High Courts & Supreme Court – have failed.

The Government’s view is that India has strong internal systems in place. Therefore, we do not need Optional Protocol. NGOs, on the other hand, say that if we have strong institutions, then we should not worry about external scrutiny.