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Russia to Sign Disability Rights Treaty
By Andrea Shettle, MSW | August 26, 2008
Russia may be about to sign the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), RIA Novosti has reported ("Russia to join convention on rights of disabled"). If this occurs, then Russia would join 130 other countries that have already signed the CRPD. Of these 130 countries, 34 have gone on to fully ratify the international agreement.
The CRPD is the first international, legally-binding agreement among countries to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. It protects a wide range of human rights such as the right to receive emergency services during times of natural disaster or war; the right to liberty and security of person; the right to freedom from exploitation and abuse; the right to receive information in accessible formats (e.g., Braille, sign language, etc); the right to habilitation and rehabilitation services; the right to an adequate standard of living; and many more.
Countries that ratify the CRPD are obligated to create new laws as needed to ensure that people with disabilities in their country receive all the human rights in the CRPD on the same basis as other people in the same country. For example, if a country’s law protects the rights of all women above a certain age to vote in elections, then women with disabilities should share in the same right. Countries ratifying the CRPD must also abolish any old laws that violate the treaty. Countries that sign the CRPD without ratifying it are not yet required to obey it. However, signing the CRPD does commit a country to avoiding any actions that would violate it. Signing a treaty also signals strong interest in ratifying it in the future.
Read more about Russia and the CRPD at:
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080805/115775527.html
Also read about people with psycho-social disabilities in Russia in an earlier RatifyNow post entitled Defending Disability Rights in Russia.
Learn more about the CRPD and the Optional Protocol by skimming the RatifyNow FAQ.
Find out if your country has signed or ratified the CRPD at http://www.un.org/disabilities/countries.asp?navid=12&pid=166
Learn how you can become involved with the global campaign to promote the ratification and implementation of the CRPD and Optional Protocol in your country and elsewhere.
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