Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 49: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs Ireland's position in relation to the proposed UN Convention on Disability. [39536/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Agreement on the draft UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was reached on Friday 25 August 2006 by the Ad-Hoc Committee, established by the UN General Assembly in December 2001 to carry out this task. The draft Convention outlines the general obligations of States in relation to the rights of persons with disabilities. It aims to ensure that persons with disabilities are given an equal opportunity to enjoy their human rights and specifies that discrimination on the grounds of disability is impermissible.

The text of the draft Convention is now being finalised by a Drafting Committee and the process of translating it into the official languages of the United Nations is under way. The Ad-Hoc Committee will reconvene on 5 December to give formal approval to the work of the Drafting Committee and the draft Convention will then be referred to the General Assembly. It is hoped to have the Convention adopted by the General Assembly during its current session.

I welcome this significant progress towards the adoption of the Convention. Ireland will be supporting the adoption of the draft Convention when it comes before the General Assembly. Ireland, along with our EU partners, was an active participant in the meetings of the Ad-Hoc Committee. Ireland was represented at these meetings by officials from a number of Government Departments, including my own Department and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Ireland also actively supported the participation of civil society in the drafting process. Ireland has funded participation at the Ad-Hoc Committee by Irish NGOs representing persons with disabilities and has emphasised the importance of maintaining the unprecedented level of NGO participation in the drafting process. Ireland has welcomed the progress made to date and looks forward to the early adoption by the General Assembly of what will be the first human rights convention of the 21st century.