Fifth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 12-14 September 2012

Conference Room 4, United Nations Headquarters, New York

Quick-links


The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 61/106 of 13 December 2006. It came into force on 3 May 2008 upon the 20th ratification. Article 40 of the Convention stipulates that “The States Parties shall meet regularly in a Conference of States Parties in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the present Convention.” Since 2008, four sessions of the Conference of States Parties have been held at United Nations Headquarters, New York.

The theme of the fifth session is “Making the CRPD count for Women and Children”. The following are the sub-themes of the Conference: “Technology and Accessibility”, “Children with Disabilities” and “Women with Disabilities”.

BUREAU

  • President: Sweden
  • Vice-Presidents: Hungary, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Thailand

DOCUMENTS

Official documents

Conference room papers

Other documents and links

OFFICIAL STATEMENTS

All documentation and statements are posted on the PaperSmart portal at http://papersmart.unmeetings.org/en/treaty-bodies/crpd/5th-session/.

Click on this PaperSmart logo to go to the CRPD PaperSmart portal

Conference transcripts

NB: CART services (Communications Access Real Time translation or closed-captioning) was made available at the Conference in order to facilitate inclusion and communication accessibility. The following unedited CART transcripts may not be a complete verbatim record of the proceedings:

SESSIONS OF THE CONFERENCE

Opening session (12 September, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

  • Chair: Bureau (Sweden)
  • Opening remarks
  • Adoption of the agenda
  • Election of the Member of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • Matters related to the implementation of the Convention: General Debate

Roundtable 1: Accessibility and Technology (12 September, 3 to 6 p.m.)

Speakers:

  • Hiroshi Kawamura, Founder and past President of DAISY Consortium International
  • Inmaculada Placencia-Porrero, Deputy Head for Rights of PWDs of DG for Justice, European Commission
  • Frances West, Director of Accessibility Centre, IBM
  • Sean Cruse, United Nations Global Compact

Round Table 2: Children with Disabilities (13 September, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

Speakers:

  • Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, Deputy Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Government of South Africa
  • Marta Santos Pais, Special Represenative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children
  • Nick Alipui, Director, UNICEF
  • Jenny Nilsson, World Federation of the Deaf, President, Youth Section
  • Ximena Rivas, Director of the National Service for Disabilities and Vice-President of CEDDIS 

Informal Session: Women with disabilities (13 September, 3 to 6 p.m.)

Speakers:

  • Yassine Fall, UN Women
  • Rachel Kachaje, Deputy Chairperson, Development and Underrepresented Group for Disabled People's International (DPI)
  • Myra Kovary, Coordinator of International Network of Women with Disabilities
  • Erzsebet Foldesi, Vice President of European Disability Forum
  • Carlos Rios, Member, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

 Interactive Dialogue: Implementation of the Convention (14 September, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

Speakers:

  • Chair: Bureau (Sweden)
  • United Nations entities:
    • Department of Economic and Social Affairs(DESA)
    • Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
    • The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat)
    • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • UN Special Rapporteur on Disability of Commission for Social Development
  • Summary of panel discussions
  • Other matters
  • Closing of the meeting

PARTICIPATION OF OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DELEGATES

  • Seating with nameplates is reserved for States Parties, only.
  • All other observer States seating is open and not reserved
  • State Party delegates should provide the Secretariat with information regarding their official delegations and accessibility requirements (wheelchair, deaf, hearing-impaired, Braille documents and language, etc.) through their Permanent Missions to the UN.

MEDIA

CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION

Civil Society CRPD Forum (11 September, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 6 p.m.)

The International Disability Alliance (IDA), with the support of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), will host a day-long event in Conference Room 4 on 11 September, the day before the opening of the Conference.

NGO Accreditation

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS (NHRIs)

SIDE-EVENTS TO THE CONFERENCE