UN convention on disability

Context and commentary

The proposed United Nations convention on disability could contribute to the codification of abortion and euthanasia into international law. It would be legally binding.

A reference to "sexual and reproductive health services" in the draft convention's article about health could create new rights. Some 17 countries have objected to this phrase.

That article mentions health and rehabilitation "rights" and "services." This would add a right that could be interpreted to include abortion.

The committee chairman says that it is not the working group's intention to create new human rights and that this was recognised in paragraph 94 of the report on the fifth session. He has told the working group that the drafters' intention matters in such cases.

D. Brian Scarnecchia, JD, legal counsel of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists has written: "[I]t is my position [...] that the proposed language for [the article on health] could create new sexual and reproductive rights for the following reasons:

"Even though paragraph 94 may accurately reflect the intent of the Working Group, it offers no legal protection that the outcome document will not be interpreted to contain new human rights. In fact, paragraph 94 itself does not mention rights, or the creation of new rights at all.
"More importantly, even if paragraph 94 were incorporated by reference into the report of this session, or any other session, it would merely reflect the legislative intent of the drafters of the language of this document. It would not necessarily reflect the intent of those who would later ratify this Convention. As such, paragraph 94, may be persuasive but certainly not binding legal authority on a juridical body charged with interpreting this treaty, such as national tribunals, regional tribunals, and international compliance committees and juridical institutions.
"The Working Group text of [the article on health] includes "sexual and reproductive health services" as a component of the "right to health." No legally binding international treaty or convention contains such language.
"If the intention of this working group is not to create new rights in international law it should avoid using unprecedented and vaguely defined new rights language."

Wording

"Sexual and reproductive rights" has never appeared in any legally binding convention or treaty. "Reproductive health," "reproductive health care," "reproductive health services" and "reproductive rights" do not appear in any legally binding UN document.

Amendments

Pro-life lobbyists want:

"sexual and reproductive services" to be removed from the convention.
language about medical treatment to be clarified
language in the convention to ensure that so called "quality of life" cannot be used as an excuse to remove either essential medical treatment or essential nutrition and hydration from anyone with a disability.

Qatar is promoting the following wording for the article on health: "Ensure that persons with disabilities shall not be denied nutrition and hydration necessary to preserve or sustain that person's life, regardless of the method of administration or perceived quality of life; Ensure that persons with disabilities shall not be denied medical, life-preserving treatment, with the intent of ending the disabled person's life."

SPUC wants "dignity" in the convention to be replaced with "dignity and worth". The latter phrase appears in the UN charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The use of "dignity" on its own has been employed to justify euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Background and timetable

UN General Assembly resolution 56/168 of 19 December 2001 established the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. The article on the right to health was article 21 but is now article 25.

The part of the article which talks about health and rehabilitation "rights" and "services" is known as the chapeau.

The social policy and development division of the UN's department of economic and social affairs has a webpage about disability which, at the time of writing (April 2006), includes news of the ad hoc committee.

The committee's eighth session will take place from 14 to 25 August 2006. This may be its last session.