September 2003 NUI Galway Law Expert to help prepare UN Treaty on Disability

Professor Gerard Quinn, Faculty of Law, NUI Galway, has been nominated by Rehabilitation International (RI) as its representative on a new United Nations Working Group to draft a treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities.

RI is a global conglomerate of disability NGOs and is chaired by Lex Freiden who is also chair of the US National Council on Disability. The new UN Working Group which is composed of States as well as independent experts, will meet in January and aims to produce the first working draft of a treaty.

Professor Quinn co-authored a leading Study for the United Nations on the treaty in 2002 and is academic co-ordinator of an EU Network of Disability Legal Specialists.

"It is an honour to be part of the Working Group. Its work will be truly historic and exciting," said Professor Quinn. " A legally binding treaty will hopefully make a big difference to the 600 million persons with disability who live mostly in developing countries. It will reinforce the reform process at home and will help to engender reform where it currently does not exist. I am proud that NUI Galway can play its part in the treaty drafting process, which has a truly global significance. It shows that quality research can make a positive difference in the policy process," he said.

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