UN Human Rights Treaties

United Nations A/AC.265/2005/3*
General Assembly Distr.: General
1 August 2005
English
Original: French
05-43613* (E) 020805
*0543613*
Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and
Integral International Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Rights and
Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
Sixth session
New York, 1-12 August 2005
Note verbale dated 18 July 2005 from the Permanent Mission of
Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the Secretariat
The Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations presents its
compliments to the United Nations Secretariat and has the honour to transmit
herewith the Casablanca Declaration (see annex), adopted at the conclusion of the
regional consultative meeting of Arab States on the comprehensive and integral
international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of
persons with disabilities, held in Casablanca, Morocco, from 15 to 17 June 2005,
and requests that this letter and its annex be circulated as a document of the Ad Hoc
Committee.
* Reissued for technical reasons.

A/AC.265/2005/3
Annex to the note verbale dated 18 July 2005 from the
Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations
addressed to the Secretariat
Regional consultative meeting of Arab States on the draft
international convention on the protection and promotion of
the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities
Casablanca, 15-17 June 2005
Casablanca Declaration
We, the participants in the regional consultative meeting of Arab States on the
draft international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and
dignity of persons with disabilities, held at the Sheraton Hotel in Casablanca
(Morocco) from 15 to 17 June 2005, representing the Governments, and nongovernmental
organizations, of Algeria, the Comoros, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the
Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, at the invitation of the
Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and
Social Affairs of the United Nations and the State Secretariat of Morocco for
Family, Children and Disabled Persons, with the support of the Italian Government,
and in the presence of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability, with the
purpose of debating the content of the convention in relation to the context and the
identification of priorities at the regional level, support the initiatives of the United
Nations for the promulgation of this convention and stress the following points.
1. We invite all Arab countries to participate in the formulation of, and the
discussions on, the content of the draft international convention on the protection
and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, in partnership
with all parties concerned (Governments and organizations representing persons
with disabilities);
2. We invite United Nations bodies to enhance regional consultations through
these agencies with Member States;
3. We invite the United Nations to take all necessary measures to accelerate the
ongoing negotiations in the Ad Hoc Committee and the promulgation of the final
text of the convention;
4. We affirm the need to include in the convention a specific and separate article
on mechanisms to follow up and monitor implementation of the convention at the
international, regional and national levels to enable the participation of persons with
disabilities and the associations representing them;
5. We stress the need to introduce the concept of inclusive development based on
the human rights of persons with disabilities in conjunction with the work of the
World Summit to be held in September 2005;
6. We support the proposal for a specific article on international cooperation;
7. We invite the United Nations to endorse and support the Arab Decade of
Persons with Disabilities 2004-2013 and to participate in its implementation;

A/AC.265/2005/3
8. We invite non-governmental organizations involved with human rights to
recognize and support the international convention on the protection and promotion
of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities;
9. We stress the need to include in the convention a specific article on women
with disabilities and a specific article on children with disabilities.
Casablanca, 17 June 2005