UNITED
NATIONS
CRC
Convention on the
Rights of the Child
Distr.
GENERAL
CRC/C/GC/9
27 February 2007
Original: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
Forty-third session
Geneva, 11 – 29 September 2006
GENERAL COMMENT No. 9 (2006)
The rights of children with disabilities
I. Introduction
A. Why a General Comment on children with disabilities?
1.
It is estimated that there are 500-650 million persons with disabilities in the world,
approximately 10 % of the world population, 150 million of whom are children. More than
80 % live in developing countries with little or no access to services. The majority of children
with disabilities in developing countries remain out of school and are completely illiterate. It
is recognized that most of the causes of disabilities, such as war, illness and poverty, are
preventable which also prevent and/or reduce the secondary impacts of disabilities, often
caused by the lack of early/timely intervention. Therefore, more should be done to create the
necessary political will and real commitment to investigate and put into practice the most
effective actions to prevent disabilities with the participation of all levels of society.
2.
The past few decades have witnessed positive focus on persons with disabilities in
general and children in particular. The reason for this new focus is explained partly by the
fact that the voice of persons with disabilities and of their advocates from national and
international non governmental organizations (NGO) is being increasingly heard and partly
by the growing attention paid to persons with disabilities within the framework of the human
rights treaties and the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. These treaty bodies have
considerable potential in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities but they have
generally been underused. When adopted in November 1989 the Convention on the Rights of
GE.07-40702