Mr President, 2003 is indeed the European Year of People with Disabilities. It is also ten years since the UN Year of Disabled People and tonight it is quite right that this Parliament focuses not only on the rights of disabled people within the European Union, but on the disabled victims of human rights abuse world-wide. On the global stage disabled people are the least recognised and most disempowered of all people. This UN convention should act to mobilise change across all levels of government: local, national and international, forcing decision-makers to recognise disability rights in a human rights context in a way that has not happened before. For too long international human rights instruments have failed to recognise disabled people explicitly and UN agencies working in the field of human rights and development cooperation have not recognised the specific factors which exclude and isolate disabled people. I would like to think that a UN convention would also bring important resources to assist disabled people in their own empowerment and development in decision-making in order that their voice can be heard. I am pleased tonight that Members on all sides of the House have supported the principle of a legally-binding convention. Whilst existing human rights treaties apply to persons with disabilities, they do not specifically state that they protect the rights of persons with disabilities, nor is there an international treaty which specifically addresses those rights. The human rights of disabled people deserve the same level of protection as those of other disadvantaged or vulnerable people such as women, children and ethnic minorities. People with disabilities are a marginalised group for whom existing, generalised human rights standards have not worked and who therefore require explicit standards to adjust the discrimination they face in society and the range of violations to which they are subjected. That is true for us in the European Union also, and it must be true further afield – particularly as regards our development cooperation policies – as the ACP-EU parliamentary assembly passed a groundbreaking resolution last year. However, we still have to ensure the full participation of, and full rights for, disabled people such as the victims of landmines, people who have deliberately had disability inflicted upon them as part of war, or who have developed disability because of chronic diseases unknown to us nowadays within the European Union. This is a truly worldwide issue. I congratulate the Commissioner on what she said tonight. She says that she supports bringing forward in the future a comprehensive disability non-discrimination directive. She will not be surprised if I say to her again that in November she will have the opportunity to announce her intention to do so, in the communication winding up the European Year of Disabled People. While she has the requisite power and influence, she should make that commitment. We need her to do so; indeed, in the vote that will take place tomorrow we call on her to do so. The rapporteur has made clear that there is a difference between her view and that of the Socialists on the issue of organisations for and of disabled people. Organisations of disabled people are controlled by disabled people and by the parents of disabled people who are able to speak for themselves. It is right that they are given priority, as they have been within the European Union since the 1996 Commission communication. The Commissioner mentioned blind people: the European Blind Union – part of the European Disability Forum, the representative body of disabled people – wants us to give priority to organisations of disabled people. Mrs Lynne says that people with severe learning difficulties cannot represent themselves. But what about People First and other self-advocacy organisations? These prove her wrong. We stand by the split vote. But that does not detract from our enormous support for this and for a United Nations convention for disabled people.

Political group: PSE