A New Zealander who has to be elected a brain injury at birth and spent his childhood in homes the first person with an intellectual disabi...
A New Zealander who has to be elected a brain injury at birth and spent his childhood in homes the first person with an intellectual disability to the UN Committee to serve, has suffered on disability.
Robert Martin was one of nine newly elected Tuesday in committee for a period of three years at the Ninth Conference on the Convention on the Rights of members with disabilities. The Committee of the body of independent experts, the implementation of the objectives of the Convention is monitored.
Martin, 59, is a leading company in the Community disability in New Zealand and is a professional evaluator of disability funded support services by the government. It plays an advisory role for the first New Zealand, an advocacy group for people with learning disabilities.
Martin said he and other disabled people have shown that they can contribute to achieving the objectives of the Convention.
"Now the work begins," he told reporters after the vote.
The UN General Assembly adopted the convention by consensus 32 pages in December 2006, a mission of rights activists like Martin disabilities and the governments of New Zealand, Ecuador led to end and Mexican campaign.
The agreement, which was signed by 164 of 193 member countries, is a plan to end the discrimination and exclusion of physical and mental disabilities in education, employment and everyday life. Countries are obliged to grant protection against exploitation and abuse of the disabled, while protecting the rights they already have - such as the right to vote for building wheelchair and blind chair.
The convention guarantees that the disabled have to live the inherent right to equal terms with non-disabled and requires countries to prohibit discrimination based on disability and guarantee equal legal protection. Countries need to ensure the equal rights of persons with disabilities to own property and to inherit, to control their financial affairs and privacy of their personal lives.
Nicky Wagner, New Zealand Minister for Disability and the delegates of his country at the conference, said the agreement is stronger because of the work that Martin put in the language that eventually included in the document.
"The end result was rich because of their contribution," he said.
A biography of Martin: "You are a person," he said, as he suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse during childhood in large institutions and nursing homes. Eventually he learned to fight for their rights and decided to rule their own lives. He now lives in her own home in a small town in New Zealand with his wife Lynda and was to live independently an advocate of the right of disabled people.
The nine new members of the Commission of 18 persons who were selected from 18 candidates for the rights of people with disabilities. New members, scientists and other experts in various handicaps, replace at the end of the year, whose term expires and shall serve until 2020.
The contract will last until Thursday.
