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Youth convention for the collection of Signatures held in Karachi.
A Million sign petition to be submitted to National Assembly for ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Chitraltimes.com Report

Karachi: “This is the beginning for us, as adults, to take this cause forward, and highlight its importance to broader society. We will collaborate with the government and work in partnership with all key stakeholders to achieve the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.”
These were the views of Mr. Amin Hashwani, President of the Network of Organization Working for People with Disabilities (NOWPDP) at the youth convention celebrating the collection of more than half a million signatures for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This initiative is a joint collaboration between NOWPDP and CMPHR. Children representing 104 schools and organizations in Karachi have been collecting signatures on a petition addressed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan requesting him to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. So far 668,730 signatures have been collected that is part of a campaign initiated by the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR) at the Youth Advocacy Forum at the Aga Khan University Auditorium here today.
On receiving the signed petition by the school children, Mr. Amin said that the Network and its partners have planned to assist the policymakers and the legislative function of the government about the rights of people with disabilities, and will present almost a million signatures on the petition to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairman of Senate, of the Government of Pakistan.

The first stage of the campaign was achieved when the government signed the UN convention on 25th September 2008. Since then a petition has been launched to persuade the government to take the next step and ratify the Convention so that laws are put in place that allow people with disabilities to enjoy their rights. So far 53 countries have ratified the Convention, including India, Oman and Bangladesh, but Pakistan is not yet one of them, despite over 3.5 million people with disabilities in the country. The urgency of ratifying and implementing the instrument can in no way be denied, given the extreme stigmatization and marginalization of people with disabilities in Pakistan.

The keynote speaker, Senator (R) Iqbal Haider, Co-Chairman, Human Rights Commission and former Attorney General and Federal Minister for Law and Justice, briefly described the Convention and its purpose, explaining the processes and significance of signing and ratifying the instrument. He expressed the immediacy of the need for ratification. He said that the dire situation of persons with disabilities, the world over, including Pakistan, has meant that the Convention and its Optional Protocol are essential instruments to be signed, ratified and implemented by all countries. They are legally binding instruments defining the legal obligations of the government to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

NOWPDP, an initiative of the Aga Khan Council for Pakistan, works in collaboration with key stakeholders towards the improvement of quality of lives of people with disabilities in Pakistan. The Network enjoys at present the membership of more than a hundred nongovernmental organizations and disabled peoples organizations (DPO’s) nation-wide and is fast becoming a force to be reckoned in accepting an open society for persons with disabilities.
“Although the collection and handing over of more than half-a-million signatures was a big step forward in their campaign, we will not stop here and will continue to campaign until the UN convention will be ratified by the Government of Pakistan. Through this Forum, we hope to encourage children to participate with even greater enthusiasm in the activism movement as well as increase their awareness and understanding of the cause”, said Mr. Zulfiqar Ali, Director of CMPHR, in his concluding address.

CMPHR formerly Human Rights Education Programme (HREP) has been working in Pakistan since 1995. Their goal is to inculcate the concept of human rights education into local school’s curriculum through teacher trainings as well as the development of educational materials and activism campaigns that directly involve children.
Children representing more than 100 schools and 20 organizations, working for people with disabilities and representatives of the media attended the event.