Human Rights Commission

This is a collection of links to information and resources about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).It will be updated as resources are developed.

These sites offer information on general disability and human rights issues, as well as links to other relevant sites.

We cannot guarantee the accessibility of these resources.

• About the Convention – International
• About the Convention – New Zealand
• The Disability Rights Convention in accessible and other formats or for different audiences
• Youth and Children
• Education about the Convention
• Getting involved – Ratification and implementation
• Monitoring the Convention

About the convention – International

The United Nations (UN)

• http://www.un.org/disabilities/
  This is the official UN site with information about the Convention including progress on international ratifications and related reports. It also includes the text of the Convention in accessible HTML and PDF formats. Please note that it’s available in the UN official languages and also in a number of national languages.
• Official version of the UN convention (copyright free full version booklet) (PDF)

• You can download or subscribe on-line to Enable, the UN’s monthly disability newsletter here.

• http://www.unhchr.ch/disability/index.htm
  This is the Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights disability section of their website.

• http://www.asiapacificforum.net/issues/disability
  The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions has been involved in a variety of projects related to the Convention and disability issues. Disability information on this site includes some presentation material on the Convention from the APF Forum September 2007.

• Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol: From Exclusion to Equality, Realizing the rights of persons with disabilities
  This handbook is for legislators and others involved in the ratification and implementation of the Convention.While it is written for a particular audience it may be useful for others. It is available in PDF.

• http://www.inclusion-international.org/en
  Inclusion International is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) promoting the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The Convention is a priority area of their work and this site has a range of information about the Convention.

About the Convention – New Zealand

• http://www.odi.govt.nz/what-we-do/un-convention-factsheet.html
  The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) has a fact sheet about the Convention and the implications for New Zealand. The Office is leading the work towards ratification of the Convention.

• Becoming Party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the International Treaty Making Process in New Zealand (a PowerPoint Presentation to the Commission by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade).

The Disability Rights Convention in accessible and other formats or for different audiences

• The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) www.odi.govt.nz has Braille and audio versions of the Convention text. These are available from the Office on request. Audio files may be added at a later date. Contact odi@msd.govt.nz.
• The ODI have translated the Convention into Māori with a plain language version available as well.

• An easy to read version of the Convention has been released by the UK Office for Disability Issues and is available as a PDF on ODI’s website at:
  http://www.odi.govt.nz/documents/convention/easy-read-un-convention.pdf
  

• http://www.hpod.org/pdf/we-have-humna-rights.pdf
  Plain text version of the Convention.
• It’s About Ability (PDF)
  This informative, illustrated booklet was developed for children. It is a useful and, in terms of language, accessible resource.

• The HTML version on the Enable website is easy to download and reformat. The Human Rights Commission will provide large print copies on request.

• A New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) version of the Convention is available on DVD. You can request a copy from infoline@hrc.co.nz.
• A plain English version of the Convention can be found at http://ratifynow.org/un-convention/crpd-in-plain-language/
  This site also offers strategies on how to get involved.

Youth and Children

• http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_cfc_questionnaire.php
  A child friendly text of the Convention can be found on this site.
• http://www.acya.org.nz/?t=108
  This links to a useful fact sheet for young people on the Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa website.

Education about the Convention

• http://www.wnusp.net/
  An education kit focusing on people with the experience of mental illness is available from the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, (WNUSP) website. This kit is available in several parts, focusing on particular articles of the Convention and its implementation.

• The Training Manual on Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities
  This manual is for those who wish to train themselves or others in the human rights of people with disabilities, with a particular focus on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Available in English and Mongolian, the manual aims to promote and support the participation of people with disabilities and their families in ratifying and implementing the CRPD.

  This manual will be useful to people already knowledgeable about disability and disability rights, including how to locate additional information relevant to the training they wish to provide.

  The manual was launched in March 2008 by AIFO (Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau) and DPI (Disabled Peoples International) Italy in collaboration with the Mongolian National Federation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, with financial contributions from the United Nations.

• Teaching kit on CRPD
  Organisations can use this to train people on the Convention. The kit includes visual Power Point presentations, Word document files, and PDF files covering various aspects of the Convention.

  This toolkit has been produced by Handicap International.

• Disability Rights Advocacy Workbook
  This workbook includes three sections:
  - Advocacy for people with disabilities
  - How does human rights advocacy work
  - How do you use international human rights treaties for advocacy? – including, but not limited to the CRPD. It offers advice on how people can advocate for their country to ratify and then implement the Convention.

  The workbook is published by Survivors Corps (formerly known as Landmine Survivors Network).

• We Have Human Rights: A human rights handbook for people with developmental disabilities
  An action and advocacy handbook designed by and for self-advocates with intellectual disabilities and for use by those advancing the human rights of people with disabilities. This is designed for anyone wanting a clear explanation of the Convention, including people with intellectual disabilities, their organisations, and their advocates. It includes group work exercises and a section dedicated to exploring what the rights mean and how to be assertive and advocate for the realisation of those.

  This handbook was published by the Harvard Project on Disability.

• Human Rights. YES!
  Based on the Convention, Human Rights. YES! offers people with disabilities the opportunity to learn about their own human rights.

  Human Rights. YES! is designed for people who are not necessarily experts in human rights, and can be used with small groups.

  The manual includes three parts:
  - Understanding disability as a human right
  - The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  - Advocacy! Taking action for the human rights of people with disabilities.

  This resource has been produced by The University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center.

• Calling all Children and Youth: The CRPD for Young People
  UNICEF has developed a child-friendly version of the Convention to help children understand disability rights. They have also produced a facilitator’s guide for conducting focus groups with children on the child-friendly version of the Convention.

• Learning about the International Disability Rights Treaty
  RatifyNow has assembled a list of resources to help people learn more about the Convention.

Getting involved – Ratification and implementation

• http://www.icrpd.net/ratification/en/index.htm
  http://www.icrpd.net/implementation/en/index.htm
  DPI ratification and implementation toolkits are available for free download from these sites. DPI is an international organisation of disabled people’s NGOs. It is downloadable in several parts and is a useful resource for people starting to learn about the Convention.

• http://ratifynow.org/
  This site has resources, links and action strategies for working towards ratification of the Convention. It is an NGO supporting the work of disability rights advocates to persuade their governments to ratify the Convention.

• http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/
  The International Disability Alliance took a leading role in the NGO part of the negotiations of the CRPD. The members of the alliance can be reached from this site. There is specific disability material and information about the Convention on their individual sites.

• http://www.riglobal.org/
  The Rehabilitation International site has a special edition of their publication the International Rehabilitation review focused on the Convention. Rehabilitation International, despite the name, also has a focus on the rights of disabled people.

• http://www.landminesurvivors.org/what_rights_ratification.php
  Landmine Survivors Network is an international NGO organisation. A resource is available to help people lobby their government to ratify the Convention. It can be downloaded in different parts in either Word or PDF format.

Monitoring the Convention

• http://www.yorku.ca/drpi/index.html
  Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) is a collaborative project based at York University in Canada, focusing on monitoring of the Disability Rights Convention.

Sites already listed such as the UN Enable and Asia Pacific Forum sites will also have material on monitoring.