United Nations Treaty for the Disabled Takes Effect

On this past Saturday, May 3, 2008, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities took effect. According to the UN Wire and The Guardian newspaper (U.K.), so far 127 U.N. member states have signed the convention and about half of those have agreed to an annex or optional protocol permitting individuals or groups to complain if their governments are not implementing the convention. The Guardian further notes:
"The pact, the first of its kind and billed by the United
Nations as the first new human rights treaty of the 21st
Century, took effect 30 days after being ratified by 20
countries that have signed it. That figure has since risen to
25, but does not include the United States and Russia." Just for the record, in this particular instance it is widely believed, as the Reuters agency notes, that the 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act as amended provides greater and more detailed protection.