UN Human Rights Treaties

United Nations A/61/552
General Assembly
Distr.: General
31 October 2006
Original: English
06-59542 (E) 021106
*0659542*
Sixty-first session
Agenda items 7 and 67 (b)
Organization of work, adoption of the agenda and allocation
of items: reports of the General Committee
Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights
questions, including alternative approaches for improving the
effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms
Letter dated 25 October 2006 from the Chair of the Ad Hoc
Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and
Dignity of Persons with Disabilities addressed to the President
of the General Assembly
I have the honour to refer to General Assembly resolution 56/168 of
19 December 2001, by which the Assembly decided to establish an Ad Hoc
Committee, open to the participation of all Member States and observers of the
United Nations, to consider proposals for a comprehensive and integral international
convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities,
and resolution 59/198 of 20 December 2004, as well as relevant resolutions of the
Commission for Social Development and the Commission on Human Rights.
I also have the honour to refer to your letter of 5 October 2006, addressed to
all permanent representatives and permanent observers to the United Nations, in
which you called on Member States to complete the process for the formal adoption,
during the main part of the sixty-first session, of the convention on the rights of
persons with disabilities.
I am writing to you in my capacity as Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee
mandated with the task of completing the Convention.
As you are aware, the Ad Hoc Committee adopted the draft convention on
25 August 2006 and the draft Convention is now undergoing scrutiny by a drafting
group of the Ad Hoc Committee.
The Ad Hoc Committee is aiming to finalize its work in November, at a
resumed meeting of its eighth session, when it will adopt the report of the drafting
group. My expectation is that, in accordance with the objective set out in your letter,
the Ad Hoc Committee will recommend adoption of the draft convention by the

A/61/552
06-59542
General Assembly during the main part of its current session, in early December.
The exact timing of both meetings will depend partly on the speed with which it is
possible to process and issue, in the official languages, the report of the drafting
group and subsequently the final report of the Ad Hoc Committee, once it has
received and adopted the report of the drafting group.
The meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee, and subsequently the meeting of the
General Assembly to formally adopt the Convention, will require the allocation of
meeting time for this purpose. I should very much appreciate the assistance of your
Office in facilitating this so that this important convention can be adopted by the
Assembly during the main part of its sixty-first session.
Moreover, in view of the very tight scheduling that will be required to enable
the adoption of the Convention during the main part of the session, I have the
honour to request that item 67 of the agenda of the sixty-first session of the General
Assembly also be considered by the plenary for the sole purpose of ensuring that the
draft convention on the rights of persons with disabilities can be adopted in this
timely manner.
(Signed) Don MacKay
Chair
Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral
International Convention on the Protection and Promotion
of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities