The Rights of Children, the UN Disabilities Convention, Its Monitoring Body, and the Post-2015 Development Framework

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed a great honour for me to speak at this International Child Rights Forum at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul Korea. In particular, may I warmly thank Professor Yanghee Lee and her colleagues for organising this superb seminar. Professor Yanghee Lee came to know my wife and I when Yanghee and I were Chairpersons respectively of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (which I shall call the CRC Committee), and of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (which I shall call the CRPD Committee). I have learned so much from Professor Lee, and this makes it an added pleasure to speak here today. In this presentation, I will examine the human rights of children with disabilities in the three following segments. First, I will consider the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (which I shall call the CRPD). I will unpack its articles which are relelvant to children to illustrate its protective features and show how it enshrines the human rights of children with disabilities. Secondly, I will consider the work of the CRPD Committee, which is the monitoring body of the CRPD,. The CRPD Committee has been concerned about children with disabilities in all of its constructive dialogues. Finally, it is appropriate for me to say a few words about the High-Level Meeting on Disabilities and Development (which I shall call the HLMDD) which took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 23 September 2013. I will explain the background to this meeting and explore its Outcome Document, which I hope will play a key role in the development of a new framework for development in the post Millennium Development Goals era.