Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities closes seventh session

Committee on the Rights of Persons
  with Disabilities

20 April 2012

PROVISIONAL ROUNDUP

Adopts Concluding Observations on the Initial Report of Peru

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this afternoon closed its one-week seventh session after reviewing the initial report of Peru on how that country implements the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  The Committee’s concluding observations on the report will be available on the Committee’s website next week.    

In closing remarks, Ron McCallum, Committee Chairperson, said the Committee had held its most productive session yet.  They had a useful and constructive dialogue with Peru, and the concluding observations had been finalised; they would now go through the usual checking process with the Mission of Peru before being published.  During the session the Committee attended side events and discussed other internal issues.  Mr. MrCallum said that the Committee needed longer sessions, and although it would now meet for three weeks per year, even at that rate it would soon have a ten-year backlog.  However, gaining extra time depended upon a General Assembly resolution and was not an easy process.

During the closing meeting, the Committee announced decisions it had made during its private meetings: it had decided to endorse the outcomes of the Dublin II meeting on treaty body strengthening.  It agreed that an annual half-day of General Discussion would commence in the ninth session, to be held in April 2013, with the first theme being Women and Girls with Disabilities.  The Committee had requested United Nations Conference Services to make all possible efforts to make sure international sign language and captioning were made available in all public meetings: the lack of sign language had been problematic, and it was hoped that could be remedied by the next session.  A Committee member said the Committee was strategizing with other global organizations to see if it could make use of the Enquiry Procedure in the Optional Protocol, and would have more information at the next session.

At the opening of the session, the Committee heard an address from Kyung-wha Kang, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said that the treaty bodies strengthening process was now shifting from reflection to implementation.  In that respect the Dublin II Outcome Document was on the agenda of the Committee and would be reviewed under its current session.  The General Assembly had granted in its resolution an additional week of work per year to the Committee.  A multi-donor Trust Fund had been launched to support the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, while the rights of persons with disabilities were on the agenda of the Human Rights Council which had held a panel discussion on the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life and had adopted a resolution to that effect in its nineteenth session in March 2012.

During the session the Committee examined the initial report of Peru in a public meeting.  It also considered its methods of work and other matters. It held private meetings in which members of the Committee engaged on treaty body strengthening and discussed the content of future meetings. The Committee also adopted lists of issues for the initial reports of China, Argentina and Hungary, which would be considered at the next session.


The next session of the Committee will take place from 17 to 28 September 2012, during which it will review the initial reports of China, Argentina and Hungary and adopt a list of issues for Paraguay.


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For use of the information media; not an official record