Unique in its kind. The Convention on the rights of people with disabilities (CRPD)35 (2006) broke several records. It is the fastest negotiated human rights treaty in the history of the United Nations and never has a treaty been signed by so many states and parties. In 1993, with the Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities of People with Disabilities, a first non-binding declaration was issued. Following world- wide efforts by associations for people with disabi- lities, a new declaration was issued in Beijing (2000) calling for the full inclusion of people with disabilities. The UN started drafting the convention in 2004. On 13 December 2006, the day of Saint Lucia, saint of the blind, according to the Western Christian calendar, the current text of the Convention was adopted and sub- sequently entered into force on 3 May 2008. A unique feature of the CRPD is that the Convention is the result of a process in which the participation of people with disabilities and their organisations was explicitly included. The Human Rights Convention was not negotiated by the ‘States’ but considered the views, opinions and experiences of people with disa- bilities. The word of activists, representatives of orga- nisations of people with disabilities and States were of equal value. It is an example of how ‘Nothing about us without us’ was consistently followed through with. From the start, enthusiasm for signing and ratifying the Convention was high. The European Union also joined the Convention under the chairmanship of Bel- gium (2010).
