March 30, 2007 The purpose of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities. The Convention takes care to recognize that “disability” is complex, comprising both physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairment, and the barriers that faced by individuals with these impairments that may hinder their full participation in society.

Canada signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the day it opened for signature. The Convention came into force one year later, in May 2008.

-Caroline Lyster

• United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml.

• Collin, C. (2012). Canada and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Library of Parliament Research Publications. Retrieved from http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/2012-89-e.htm.