The National Human Rights Commission of Korea, together with the Korea Disability Federation, held a training workshop on the use of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from October 10 to 11.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a system that allows persons with disabilities to seek redress through the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by submitting a personal complaint to the UN or requesting an ex officio inquiry when their rights under the Convention have been violated and they are unable to obtain redress through domestic laws or systems.
In this workshop, Mr. Marcus Schefer, Chair of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was invited to educate persons with disabilities, activists from disability rights organizations and lawyers about the criteria and procedures for individual complaints under the Optional Protocol. The workshop also reviewed cases where individual complaints can be made under existing decisions of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and provided information on how to request an ex officio inquiry.
The workshop enabled domestic disability rights advocates to learn about the importance and use of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was ratified by the Republic of Korea in December last year.
