Disabilities Convention to come into force on 3 May

Spokesperson: Rupert Colville

4 April 2008


Yesterday Ecuador became the 20th country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means that the Convention and its Optional Protocol will now officially come into force on 3 May, less than one and a half years after the convention was adopted. A further 106 countries have already signed the Convention, but not yet ratified it. This is very good news – the disabled community and their supporters have fought long and hard to get to this point and we would like to congratulate them warmly on this achievement. We will do our level best to encourage all the other UN Member States to ratify this Convention as soon as possible.