UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a New Ally for Landmine Survivors

It will now be open to the 192 member states for signature and ratification and will enter into force one month after having been ratified by 20 countries.

“The Disability Rights Convention can serve as a powerful tool to complement the victim assistance obligations in the Mine Ban Treaty,” said Tun Channareth, Cambodian landmine survivor and ICBL ambassador, recalling that Article 6.3 of the Mine Ban Treaty calls for States Parties to provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration, of mine victims. He also stressed thatduring the Mine Ban Treaty’s First Review Conference in Nairobi in 2004, States Parties recognized that victim assistance is more than just a medical or rehabilitation issue — it is a human rights issue.

“The new convention will provide a broad framework in international law to promote the rights of landmine survivors everywhere. It will help bridge the gap between the discourse of equal rights for all and the everyday reality of people with disabilities,” Tun Channareth continued.

The Disability Rights Convention’s provisions cover issues including: accessibility, assistive devices, protection for women and children with disabilities; access to education; the right to healthcare and rehabilitation; an end to discrimination in the job market; the right to own and inherit property and equal access to financial services; the right to adequate standards of living and social protection; the right to privacy and access to medical records; the right to equal participation in public life; and the right to participate in cultural life.

“States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty have the obligation to provide assistance to landmine survivors. We hope that the principles enshrined in the Disability Rights Convention will help guide the adoption of policies and practices that are tailored to survivors’ needs, inclusive and non-discriminatory,” said Margaret Arach Orech, ICBL Ambassador and landmine survivor from Uganda.

“We are now calling for the Disability Rights Convention to be signed and ratified without delay by all states, so that it can become a tool to protect and empower all people with disabilities, including hundreds of thousands of landmine survivors in the world, far too often condemned to a life of exclusion and inequality,” concluded Sylvie Brigot, ICBL’s Executive Director.

ICBL member organizations, including Handicap International and Landmine Survivors Network have actively participated in negotiating the text of the Convention. For more information, please see http://www.handicap-international.org, and http://www.landminesurvivors.org

The text of the Disability Rights Convention is available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/