UNO-Disability Convention: the current standing
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its optional Protocol, which was adopted on 13.12.2006 by the General Assembly of the UN is a pioneer in many regards: it is the first human rights convention of the new century, it is not only an anti-discrimination convention but also brings a wide range of classic and fundemental rights to the forefront and from a european perspective it is the first human rights convention that the EU has handled and signed.
Currently 123 states have signed the UN – Disability Rights Convention and a further 69 have signed the optional Protocol. From these, 15 states have already ratified the Convention and 9 the optional Protocol, among them are the EU States Croatia, Hungary and Spain.
- UN Headquarters in New York
Not ratified by Switzerland
National Councillor Pascale Bruderer put forward a motion to the Federal Council on 20 december 2006 (06.3820) to start the ratification process.
The Federal Council rejected the motion. It saw the signing of the Convention as fundamentally desirable. In accordance with recent practice Switzerland has made no steps to sign the Convention as long as it is not certain whether it could be followed by an actual ratification.
The Federal Council has not yet dealt with the clarifications of the consequences of the Convention. It has not yet been established in the responsible commission of the National Council when the motion will be dealt with.
Switzerland has however become a certain roll by the implementation of the Convention. A committee with its headquarters in Geneva will be created, which will over see the implementation by the various States, especially the supervision of the State reports. At the moment it is still unclear how long it will take before Switzerland makes a statement about the significance of the Convention as already announced by the Federal Council in March 2007. On 1 October 2007 the umbrella body of private Disability Aid and Self-Help Organisations (DOK), the Equality Federation and the specialist association Égalité Handicap delivered an argumentarium to the Federal Council for signing the UN Convention. The signatories are of the opinion that the Convention is an opportunity for Switzerland to reinforce the rights of people with disabilities.
Impact on Switzerland
The impact of the Convention would be felt among other things in the areas of career, integrated education, self determined living and the dismantling of unenforceability (like the shifiting of the burden of proof) would be significant. These topics present the important basis of equality for disabled persons. For this reason Égalité Handicap will continue with its active lobbying work to push forward the signing and ratification of the Convention by Switzerland.
Source: Égalité Handicap, Specialist department of DOK, translated by Pmc
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