The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. Currently made up of 193 Member States, the UN and its work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.

The UN has evolved over the years to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.

But one thing has stayed the same: it remains the one place on Earth where all the world’s nations can gather together, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity.

UNCRPD and its Optional Protocol (A/RES/61/106) was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. There were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 ratification of the Convention. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations. The Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.

The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

The GDA has campaigned for more than 13 years for Discrimination Legislation which is currently being drafted and will be in force by the end of 2022. Find out more about the legislation here

We campaign for greater respect for the rights and dignity of disabled islanders and carers.
We influence policy and practical change in a manner consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
We engage and empower our members so that their individual voices are heard.

In 2021 we were pleased to receive funding from Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Social Policy role (Part time for 3 years).

• Carol Le Page – is the Social Policy Director and lead for this areas of work for the GDA

We are very fortunate to have a number of volunteers working on our social policy team, they include:

• Rob Platts MBE – our lead on equality, Human Rights and UNCRPD
• Catherine Hall – education lead
• Mike Read – health lead
• Rob Harnish  – transport
• you can find out more about the team on our webpage

or email info@disabilityalliance.org.gg