Exercise: Why should governments join the new Disability Convention?

We all know why we think that the new disability Convention is a good idea, and what we hope that it will accomplish. However, governments will need to be convinced why they should commit their countries to becoming States Parties. In other words, you may need to help them understand why it is in their best interests to sign and ratify the new Convention.

Below is a list of some reasons why a country might want to join – look to see if these reasons might be appropriate for your country. For example, you might want to amend depending upon whether your country is a developed or developing country.

• To be a respected country in the world today you need to protect and uphold human rights for all members of society – ratifying this Convention sends a message to the world that your country is serious about human rights for persons with disabilities!
• We all want to live in successful and productive societies – no society can fully achieve this if persons with disabilities are excluded and forced to be a burden instead of being respected and contributing members of society. This Convention provides the guidance countries need to understand how to be inclusive of persons with disabilities in society and support their contributions.
• Ratifying this Convention provides access to a network of mechanisms and activities (such as monitoring activities and international cooperation) than can help countries in their work to uphold the human rights of persons with disabilities.
• Ratifying this Convention and implementing it will help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to which all countries have committed themselves.
• Ratifying and implementing this Convention can help countries make their development monies go further – whether they are donor or recipient countries.

In addition, what other reasons can you think of to add to this list?