Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 3: Overview of the purpose, content and structure of the Convention KEY QUESTIONS • What are the guiding principles of the UN CRPD? • What rights are protected and what obligations are imposed? • What institutional machinery is required to drive change at the domestic level? • What is the nature of international supervision? 3.1. PURPOSE OF THE UN CRPD: SECURING EQUAL RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006. It came into force on 3 May 2008 upon ratification by 20 States. At the time of writing, 161 States and one ‘regional integration organisation’ – the European Union – have ratified the Convention.80 Article 1 of the UN CRPD states that its purpose is: ... to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. [emphasis added] As article 1 makes plain, the concept of equality is central to the Convention. As mentioned in Part I of this Manual, this concept of equality goes beyond ‘equality as sameness’ and even beyond ‘equality recognising difference’. It embraces cumulative disadvantage and seeks to meld civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights to reverse these disadvantages. The 2007 UN Enable Handbook for Parliamentarians explains: The Convention is a complement to existing international human rights treaties. It does not recognize any new human rights of persons with disabilities, but rather clarifies the obligations and legal duties of States to respect and ensure the equal enjoyment of all human rights by all persons with disabilities. The Convention identifies areas where adaptations have to be made so that persons with disabilities can exercise their rights and areas where the protection of their rights must be reinforced because those rights have been routinely violated. It also establishes universal minimum standards that should apply to everyone and that provide the basis for a coherent framework for action.81 38 80 For up-to-date information on signatures and ratifications of the Convention and its Optional Protocol, see www.un.org/ development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/latest-developments.html. 81 OHCHR and Inter-Parliamentary Union, From Exclusion to Equality. Realising the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, 2007, p. 5; available at www.un.org/disabilities/documents/toolaction/ipuhb.pdf.