Dear Civil Society friends,

On behalf of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Summits of the Americas Secretariat would like to inform you that the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) of the OAS Permanent Council has requested that civil society organizations that work on issues related to persons with disabilities submit their comments and recommendations with respect to the establishment of the Committee provided for in the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.

OAS General Assembly resolution AG/RES. 2167 (XXXVI-O/06), “Establishment of the Committee Provided for in the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities,” instructs the Secretary General to present to the OAS Member States, through the Permanent Council, a proposal on the documents needed in order to activate the mechanism contemplated in Article VI of the aforementioned Convention.

In accordance with that resolution, the General Secretariat should take into account the contributions of civil society organizations that specialize in disability issues, for which reason, this Secretariat takes this opportunity to request the contributions of the mentioned organizations in order to prepare the drafts of the following documents necessary to activate the Committee:

• General Orientation regarding the Contents of the First Report of the States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CP/CAJP-2415/06 corr. 1)
  
  
• Draft Regulations of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

At the conclusion of the preparatory process, the resulting documents will be presented, through the Permanent Council, to the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities to assist in its work.

In this sense, the Summits of the Americas Secretariat invites those civil society organizations wishing to contribute comments on the documents with respect to the establishment of the Committee provided for in the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities to send a written communication to the OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat via fax (202-458-3665) or email. All written contributions must be received by this Secretariat by November 15, 2006.

Best regards,

Summits of the Americas Secretariat
Organization of American States