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New Zealand led the way in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a point that was highlighted at a recent Parliament breakfast event.

Professor Gerard Quinn, the Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the National University of Ireland was the guest speaker at the event, and a key contributor to the convention.

He spoke about his work on the Deneger/Quinn paper; A Survey of International, Comparative and Regional Disability Law Reform and in the development of The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He acknowledge the work of Wendi Wicks of DPA and outlined how the Convention was working to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities

A full transcript of Professor Quinn's speech is available here.

In 2008 New Zealand was recognised for its role in helping to write the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the US$50,000 Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award from the World Committee on Disability and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

ComVoices, a coalition of Tangata Whenua, and Community and Voluntary Sector organisations regularly holds Breakfast events as a key opportunity for Sector members to network with MPs, and each other.

The Breakfast event they held with Professor Quinn, their first for 2009 was a record-breaker with 113 guests.

Minister for Revenue, Peter Dunne, who hosted the event on behalf of Parliament spoke of the value of the Sector, noting the importance of the role it plays within New Zealand society.

He also spoke briefly on the tax legislation changes that the Government had introduced as a result of the Minister working in collaboration with the Sector, namely the removal of the cap on charitable giving (2008) and the upcoming planned introduction of a payroll giving system and streaming and refundability of imputation credits.

Dave Henderson of ANGOA (representing DPA) was the ComVoices host for the event.

Dave acknowledged the work of Breakfast attendees Hon Ruth Dyson, Anne Hawker of Rehabilitation New Zealand and Hon Peter Dunne, for his personal efforts in forwarding the disability agenda.

The second ComVoices Parliamentary Breakfast for 2009 is being organised for late March. We hope to have more details available soon.