UN Human Rights Treaties

United Nations A/C.3/58/L.78
General Assembly Distr.: Limited
19 November 2003
Original: English
03-62059 (E) 201103
*0362059*
Fifty-eighth session
Third Committee
Agenda item 117 (b)
Human rights questions: human rights questions,
including alternative approaches for improving
the effective enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms
Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Iran
(Islamic Republic of), Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand,
Nicaragua, Panama. Philippines, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal,
South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, Uruguay and Venezuela: draft resolution
Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral
International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of
the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
Recalling its resolution 56/168 of 19 December 2001, by which it decided to
establish an Ad Hoc Committee to consider proposals for a comprehensive and
integral international convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of
persons with disabilities, based on a holistic approach in the work done in the fields
of social development, human rights and non-discrimination and taking into account
the recommendations of the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission for
Social Development,
Recalling also its resolution 57/229 of 18 December 2002, as well as relevant
resolutions of the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on
Human Rights,
Reaffirming the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms and the need for persons with disabilities to be
guaranteed their full enjoyment without discrimination,
Convinced of the contribution that a convention can make in this regard,
Encouraging Member States and observers to actively participate in the Ad
Hoc Committee in order to present to the General Assembly, as a matter of priority,
a draft text of a convention,
2
A/C.3/58/L.78
Stressing the importance of the active participation of intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions in the work
of the Ad Hoc Committee, and their valuable contribution to the promotion of the
full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with
disabilities,
Recognizing the important contributions made so far to the Ad Hoc Committee
by all stakeholders,
1. Welcomes the report 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;1
2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the report of the Ad Hoc
Committee to the Commission for Social Development at its forty-second session
and to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixtieth session, and further requests
both Commissions to continue to contribute to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee;
3. Endorses the Ad Hoc Committee’s decision to establish a Working Group
with the aim of preparing and presenting a draft text, which would be the basis for
negotiations on the draft convention by Member States and observers in the Ad Hoc
Committee, taking into account all contributions;2
4. Notes that the Working Group will present the outcome of its work on a
draft text to the Ad Hoc Committee at the third session of the Committee;
5. Decides that the Ad Hoc Committee will start the negotiations on a draft
convention at its third session;
6. Decides also that the Ad Hoc Committee should hold, within existing
resources, two sessions in 2004, each of a duration of ten working days, prior to the
fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly;
7. Underlines the importance of strengthening the cooperation and
coordination between the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations in order to jointly support the work of the Ad Hoc Committee;
8. Urges that further efforts be made to ensure the active participation of
non-governmental organizations in the Ad Hoc Committee, in accordance with
General Assembly resolution 56/510 of 23 July 2002 and based on the decision of
the Ad Hoc Committee on the modalities for the participation of non-governmental
organizations in its work;
9. Stresses the need for additional efforts to ensure accessibility with
reasonable accommodation regarding facilities and documentation at the United
Nations for all persons with disabilities, in accordance with General Assembly
decision 56/474 of 23 July 2002;
10. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide the Ad Hoc
Committee with the facilities necessary for the performance of its work;
__________________
1 See A/58/118 and Corr.1.
2 See A/58/118, para. 15.

A/C.3/58/L.78
11. Encourages Member States to continue to include in their delegations to
the meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee persons with disabilities and/or other experts
in the field;
12. Urges Member States, observers, civil society and the private sector to
contribute to the voluntary fund established by its resolution 57/229 to support the
participation of non-governmental organizations and experts from developing
countries, in particular least developed countries, in the work of the Ad Hoc
Committee;
13. Requests the Secretary-General to forward a comprehensive report of the
Ad Hoc Committee to the Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, as well as to report on
the implementation of paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 of the present resolution.