Enable Newsletter April 2014

The United Nations Enable Newsletter is prepared by the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (DSPD/DESA) with input from UN offices, agencies, funds and programmes, as well as from civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities. It is also available online at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/.

In this issue:

- Status of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
- Highlights from the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Highlights from the UN system
- Upcoming calendar of events
- Other news

STATUS OF THE CRPD

143 ratifications and 158 signatories to the CRPD
80 ratifications and 92 signatories to its Optional Protocol (OP)
Georgia ratified the Convention on 13 March 2014
Andorra ratified the Convention on 11 March 2014
Andorra ratified the Optional Protocol on 11 March 2014
Japan ratified the Convention on 20 January 2014
Côte d'Ivoire ratified the Convention on 10 January 2014

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SECRETARIAT FOR THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

Follow-up: implementation of the UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on Disability and Development

Meeting of the Informal Network on Disability Statistics for Inclusive Development (4 March, 2014)

SCRPD organized this meeting in conjunction with the 45th session of the Statistical Commission. Approximately twenty experts from national statistical offices and the UN system as well as representatives from Permanent Missions to the UN discussed the current status of data and statistics with regard to persons with disabilities. Deliberations focused on how to better coordinate collection and analysis of disability data among UN agencies; on how to improve data collection and analysis; on how to strengthen national capacity; and on the roles for collaboration. SCRPD will provide follow-up on its web-site and the inter-agency online discussions will also provide input for preparations for an expert group meeting on "Disability data and statistics", which is planned for the summer of 2014.