 Dear All, Great progress was made during the 7th Ad Hoc Committee negotiations at the United Nations in NY for the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The session concluded on Feb 3. The next session is scheduled for August. It now looks like the negotiations on the convention will be concluded at that time. Two outstanding articles remain to be worked out. One on monitoring, which will receive a good deal of attention in Geneva inter-sessionally, and one on international cooperation. Now it is more important than ever for the US disability community to begin mobilize to support universal ratification of the treaty. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to visit and register at the ConventionYES website, and be sure to sign the petition in support of the Convention. If you have visited the site before, please take another look. A lot has changed and we hope you will be pleased. All the best, William Kennedy Smith |