22 Aug 2004 12:11:02 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Bill Rigby

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (Reuters) - U.N. treaty writers open a two-week battle on Monday over how to hold governments to their obligations on the rights of the disabled under an international agreement now in the final drafting stages.

U.N. officials said they hope the treaty establishing the rights of the world's 600 million disabled will be ready to be signed by September 2005 and eventually take its place alongside landmark U.N. pacts protecting women's and children's rights.

The pact has broad support, but implementation may be difficult. The European Union is leading the fight against placing new financial and legal obligations on governments, said U.N. officials.

"We want to set the standard for dealing with disability around the world," said Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, chairman of the group drafting the treaty. "We need it now more than ever."

The 25-article pact would require nations ratifying it to adopt laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of any form of disability and promote equal opportunity for the disabled in all aspects of life, from voting to sports.

It would, for example, require governments -- as resources permit -- to build wheelchair ramps and guarantee medical treatment to newborn babies with physical or mental disabilities.

"Next week we will begin the process of getting consensus on the text," said Gallegos. "There are no substantive differences."

While work on the treaty's language is well advanced, drafters will also focus during the two-week session on the convention's title, structure and definitions, the officials said.

The goal is to have a pact ready for signature by September 2005, Gallegos said. It must also be ratified by the United Nations' 191 member nations.

Establishing a U.N. convention is a lengthy process, usually taking more than five years of preparation. It took nearly two decades of pressure from outside groups before the United Nations set up a committee in 2001 to consider preparing an international pact protecting disabled rights.