16 JANUARY -
3 FEBRUARY 2006
7th Ad Hoc Committee Session on the Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

For the 7th Ad Hoc Committee meeting, the states parties entered into the negotiation phase. At the 6th Ad Hoc Committee meeting, they finished the second reading of the draft text and the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee wrote a chair text on all of the articles incorporating the views of both governments and NGOs which will be used as the base for negotiation. The negotiations should finish by the end of 2006 with the signing of the convention and then states parties will begin the ratification process.

20-22. FEBRUARY 2006
International Access conference in Serbia and Montenegro: Freedom of Movement – an (in)accessible right?!

The 5th regional conference on accessibility «Access 2006: Freedom of Movement – an (in)accessible right?!» took place from the 22nd to the 23rd of February 2006 in hotel Jugoslavija in Belgrade.
The conference was organized by the Center for Independent Living of Serbia, with the support of Handicap International and the Association of paraplegics and quadriplegics of Serbia.
The conference was attended by participants from Serbia and Montenegro, as well as from other countries, and they included representatives of people with disabilities, as well as professionals dealing with issues concerning people with disabilities. Representatives from the Council of Europe, urban planners, architects, organizations of people with disabilities from South East Europe and special guests from France.
An exhibition of photographs on how people with disabilities overcome architectural barriers in the region was held on the 21st of February at 19h30 in hotel Jugoslavija as an opening to the conference.
For more information, please contact the Center for Independent Living in Belgrade by e-mail: cilsrbija@digit.co.yu or phone +381 11 360 55 09.

Download the summary and the conclusions of the conference:
english | serbian

20-21. MARCH 2006
International conference to discuss the Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities in Serbia and Montenegro organized by UN DESA

The consultative meeting on a draft Comprehensive Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities aims at supporting a consultation on the draft Convention by disability stakeholders of non-EU South Eastern European countries. The United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs – DESA – in its capacity of substantive secretariat of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly charged with the elaboration of the Convention and on the basis of its previous experience in regional and sub-regional consultative meetings on the Convention will be responsible for the coordination and facilitation of the substance of the meeting.
The meeting will be organised under the official approval from the State of Serbia and Montenegro that acknowledges the significant opportunity to include the perspectives of persons with disabilities from the region in the draft process of the UN Convention.
The consultative meeting will be in keeping with the past consultations that were held in Asia, Western and Southern Africa, Latin America and the Arab region. The meeting planned to be held in Serbia and Montenegro aims at supporting a consultation on the draft Convention by disability stakeholders from the following seven countries: Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro- at the governmental as well as non-governmental level.
The meeting will have two primary objectives:
1) Sharing of information on the on-going negotiation process, that is to say, the content of the draft Convention, its critical issues and the debate around them.
The Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities has been at its second reading of the draft Convention and for the seventh Ad Hoc Committee, in January 2006, states delegations will move a step further with the negotiations on the Chairman’s text. Therefore, at the time of the planned consultative meeting in Serbia and Montenegro in March 2006, the draft Convention will have been thoroughly reviewed and the negotiation process will therefore be at a critical stage.
2) Favoring a dialogue among regional stakeholders in order to define the region priorities with respect to the future Convention.
Most disability stakeholders, mainly disabled people organisations, of the region have already exchanged on issues such a national disability strategy, different European instruments, anti-discrimination legislation or the UN Convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Thereby are stakeholders aware, active and keen to keep on moving towards a universal recognition of rights of persons with disabilities. Although the movement is quite dynamic, clear expectations, actions and coordination remain at a level of uncertainty. In that perspective, an enhanced dialogue among disabled people organisation is of prime importance and even more between governments and disabled people organisations. Most governments of the region have been involved in this dynamic led by disabled people organisations, but if these latter still lack clarity on the subject, so do the respective governments to whom national priorities remain elsewhere.
The expected results are the following:
1. Expectations regarding the future Convention identified and discussed by both Governments and non-governmental organizations (namely organizations of persons with disabilities)
2. Priorities and issues related to the region and sub-regions identified and discussed
3. Dialogue on the draft Convention well established at the regional level
4. Regional and sub-regional partnership on the process towards a Convention assessed and set up
The sharing of ideas and experiences at the regional level is intended to integrate the perspective from the region into the Convention negotiation process currently taking place in New York. The meeting is specifically intended to produce an outcome document on the views and priorities of the region, to be officially transmitted to the Ad Hoc Committee at its 8th session in August 2006.