ACTION MUST BE TAKEN ON UN CONVENTION FOR DISABLED PEOPLE - LIZ LYNNE

12.00.00am GMT Tue 13th Nov 2007

A marked slowdown in the number of countries signing and ratifying the UN's Disabilities Convention and its optional convention since it was launched earlier this year has prompted a Liberal Democrat MEP to launch a Written Declaration in the European Parliament today to attract attention to the issue and prompt more EU Member States and other countries to sign and ratify it.

Liz Lynne, Vice President of the All Party Disability Intergroup and rapporteur for a 2003 European Parliament report on the UN Convention for disabled people's rights, co-authored the declaration.

Speaking after the launch today in Strasbourg, Liz said:

"Achieving a legally binding convention was a milestone in itself, but it is no use if countries do not sign and ratify it. After an initial wave of enthusiasm, progress with the Convention has been poor - we must keep up the pressure on countries to sign, ratify and implement the Convention if we are to deliver the equality that disabled people deserve. International human rights treaties are worthless if they are not enforceable."

"My hope is the declaration we launched today sends a strong message reminding people of the importance and potential of this convention in the fight to secure fundamental human rights for all disabled people."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Photo Caption: Liz Lynne MEP (2nd left) with her Written Declaration co-authors Jean Lambert, Edit Bauer and Evangelia Tzampazi.

The Written Declaration below, if signed by over half of Members before December, will prompt a debate on the subject in the European Parliament.

The text of the written declaration launched today is as follows:

Written declaration on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The European Parliament,

A. whereas the first human rights treaty of the 21st Century, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and its Optional Protocol opened for signature on 30 March 2007, with 82 signatories on the first day, yet to date only three countries have ratified the Convention and Optional Protocol,

B. whereas a disability exists if essential personal and social experiences are influenced by physical and mental limitations and the discrimination resulting from them,

C. whereas there are more than 50 million disabled people in the European Union,

1. Urges every EU Member State to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol and to encourage third countries to do likewise;

2. Urges the Commission and all Member States to embrace the 'nothing about us, without us' principle, and to work with disabled people to implement the Convention;

3. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission, the Member States, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.