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Domestic incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Marshall Islands

Citation: Waiti, Divine (2015) Domestic incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Marshall Islands. In: Contemporary Challenges in Securing Human Rights. Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, pp. 133-140. ISBN 978-0-9931102-2-1

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Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘Convention’) and its Optional Protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006, and were opened for signature on 30 March 2007.1 It was described as ‘the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day’.2 Unfortunately, this was less inclusive of the Asia-Pacific countries: the region was considered to have the lowest rate of signatures and ratification of the Convention (UNESCAP 2015). Only three countries in the Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu ) have signed the convention at the time it was opened for signature, while most of the Pacific Islands countries became a state party some years later. The Republic of the Marshall Islands (‘Marshall Islands’) is the most recent Pacific island state to become a party to the Convention on 17 March 2015. This paper gives an account of the domestic incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Marshall Islands. It is a personal reflection with some critiques and comments on some of the work involved in the process of translation of the Convention into domestic law. It first looks at the accession to the international convention; second, it reviews the formulation of policy which drives legislative measures and social policies; third, it discusses the legislative review and compliance process to finetune the national legislative framework; and fourth, it describes the adoption of a comprehensive non-discriminatory law in compliance with the Convention.

Additional Information: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights offered at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, we are pleased to publish a commemorative edited volume on human rights themes authored by distinguished alumni and faculty.
Creators: Waiti, Divine and
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14296/SAS.ICwS.001.19
Official URL: http://events.sas.ac.uk/support-research/publicati...
Subjects: Human Rights & Development Studies
Keywords: human rights, refugee protection, women’s human rights, tax justice, business and human rights, poetry, rights in the digital age
Divisions: Human Rights Consortium
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Collections: Contemporary Challenges in Securing Human Rights
Dates:
  • 6 November 2015 (published)
  • 1 November 2015 (accepted)

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