Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee’s report entitled Report 92—treaty tabled on 4 June 2008.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—Report 92 contains the recommendation by the committee that binding treaty action be taken in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This convention will promote, protect and ensure the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people with disabilities and promote respect for their inherent dignity. It obligates governments to eliminate discrimination in a range of areas, including marriage, parenthood, education, health, employment and standard of living. The convention also contains provisions specifically relating to the protection of children, ensuring individuals are recognised before law, and providing equal access to facilities and services. The convention reflects and affirms the protections already existing under Australia’s domestic laws and has received widespread support.

The Attorney-General and the parliamentary secretary, who are here in the House, and the Human Rights Commissioner have represented to the committee the advantages that early ratification of this treaty will provide for Australia. Through timely ratification, Australia will have the opportunity to participate in the selection of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This committee will comprise persons with recognised competence and experience in the areas covered by the convention and will monitor and promote its implementation. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is expected to invite nominations no later than 3 July this year in accordance with the convention’s provisions. Australia must be a party to the convention in order to participate in this process.

Australia has a longstanding commitment to upholding and safeguarding the rights of people with disability and played an active role in negotiations for the convention. The committee considers it is important for Australia to continue to take a leading role in promoting the rights of people with disabilities. One way to do this is to ensure that we have the opportunity to participate in the nomination process for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The committee has taken the somewhat unusual step, therefore, of tabling this short report to allow ratification to proceed as quickly as possible. While the committee has taken evidence from the department, including evidence that the treaty has the strong support of the overwhelming majority of groups representing those with disabilities, and has raised a number of relevant issues with the department, it recognises that this will truncate the opportunity for interested persons to make submissions about the treaty. However, the committee will consider any other issues in the framing of its final report, which it intends to table at a later date. The committee encourages the government to ratify the convention as quickly as possible.

I thank the members of the committee for their work in preparing this report and also the treaties committee secretariat, including our outgoing secretary, Mr James Rees, for their efforts in preparing this report. I commend the report to the House.