UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the first human rights convention of the 21st century. The CRPD is an international law that provides guidance to countries on how to meet the human rights of persons with disabilities. The CRPD also has an Optional Protocol, which is another international law that provides a mechanism for individuals and groups, who have exhausted all domestic avenues of redress, to have claims of discrimination heard by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Canada participated in the development of the CRPD at the United Nations. The Federal government included people with disabilities on the Canadian delegation, which worked on drafting the Convention. Steve Estey, Chair of CCD's International Development Committee, and Mary Ennis, then a CCD Vice Chair, participated on different Canadian delegations.

During the Convention's development phase, CCD held community consultations where national disability groups provided input to Federal officials on the content of the CRPD.

Now that the Convention has come into force, CCD monitors the Federal Government's actions on the CRPD.