The rights of persons with disabilities has been a subject of considerable attention at the United Nations. The result of the International Year for Disabled Peoples was the Programme of Action for Persons with Disabilities adopted by the General Assembly through its resolution 37/52 of December 3, 1982. The International Year and the World Programme of Action were events that underscored that persons with disabilities should have the same opportunities to participate as other citizens, that the improved living conditions as a result of economic and social development should be equally shared and,for the first time, the defined the function of disability as the relationship between persons with disabilities and their environment.
In 1987, the halfway point in the United Nations Decade for Persons with Disability was celebrated. One element was an expert group meeting in Stockholm that involved two dynamic women, Barbra Carlsson from Sweden and Maria Rita Saule from Italy. The expert group meeting recommended that the General Assembly convene a special conference to draft an international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities that could be ready to be ratified by Member States at the end of the Decade.
The first draft of a convention was prepared by Italy for the 42nd session of the General Assembly in 1987, and Sweden prepared a draft with other suggestions about a convention for the 44th Session of the General Assembly in 1989. Neither session could reach a consensus on the proposals. The main reason given by many delegates was the belief that already existing human rights treaties already guaranteed the rights of persons with disabilities. Others stated that they believed that there would be difficulties for many States to ratify, because their laws did not cover disability as a basis for discrimination.
