The Senate at a plenary session on May 28 passed the Bill on ratification of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (New York, December 13, 2006), the press service of the Senate said.
During the discussion of the Bill, the senators stressed that the of the convention would create additional guarantees in Uzbekistan to ensure the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, serve as a guideline for improving legislation, and also strengthen the responsibility of state bodies in terms of social protection of persons with disabilities and ensuring equal opportunities for them.
The ratification will unify the national system of social protection of disabled people with advanced international standards, as well as strengthen the social and legal approach to disability in society, the statement said.
The Convention consists of 50 articles aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, lifting discrimination against them, ensuring their right to work, health care, education and full participation in society, access to justice, personal integrity, freedom from exploitation and abuse, freedom of movement, individual mobility and many others.
The senators noted that by ratifying the convention, Uzbekistan undertakes international obligations to improve the infrastructure (adaptation of residential and public buildings, transport, a number of services), as well as the formation of moral and spiritual guidelines that imply the elimination of prejudices and stereotypes among the public.
Uzbekistan signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on February 27, 2009, but it has remained unratified so far. Representatives of non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities have for a long time repeatedly reminded of the importance of ratifying this document.
At the end of 2017, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on radical improvement of the system of state support for persons with disabilities. The document instructed to carry out practical measures to prepare for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In January this year, a new Rights of Persons With Disabilities Law took effect in Uzbekistan.
