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Niger Ratifies International Disability Rights Treaty
By Andrea Shettle, MSW | June 27, 2008
Niger became the 28th country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the 17th country to ratify the accompanying Optional Protocol on June 24, 2008, the UN Enable website has reported.
The CRPD is the first international, legally-binding treaty to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. It protects a wide range of rights, including the rights of people with disabilities to access an education, health care services, transportation, and rehabiliation services; their right to vote; the right to live in the community; the right to receive information in accessible formats; and more. Countries that ratify the CRPD are obligated to abolish laws that violate the CRPD and create new legislation, if needed, to help protect the rights covered under the CRPD.
The Optional Protocol gives the CRPD additional teeth. In any country ratifying the CRPD, a person with disabilities who feels their rights have still been violated can pursue redress within their own country’s justice system. If the country also ratifies the Optional Protocol, then a person unable to receive justice within their own country can then bring petition to the international Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee is also authorized to investigate complaints of severe or recurring violations of the CRPD.
In addition to the countries that have already ratified the CRPD and the Optional Protocol, an additional 101 countries have signaled official interest in ratifying the CRPD in the future, and 54 of these have signaled an interest in ratifying the Optional Protocol. A country can signal interest in a treaty by signing it. Signing a treaty (without ratifying it) does not obligate the country to comply with the treaty. However, signing a treaty does represent a pledge to avoid any actions that would violate its treaty.
The length of time from signing a treaty to ratification can vary widely, from no time at all to many years. One reason for this is that some countries’ constitutions may require them to make all their legislation consistent with a treaty before they can formally ratify it. It can take years for the appropriate parliaments and other poltical bodies to examine existing laws; identify laws that need to be abolished and then vote to abolish them; and identify new laws that need to be passed, write the laws, and pass them. Other countries’ constitutions allow them to ratify a treaty first and then revise their laws, as needed, in the years that follow.
Niger first signed the CRPD on March 30, 2007–the first day that it was opened for country signatures. It then signed the Optional Protocol the following August 2, 2007.
Learn more about the Optional Protocol.
Learn about the many ways YOU can become involved with the global campaign to ratify and implement the CRPD and Optional Protocol, in your country and elsewhere.
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