Over 80 states signed on Friday a new human rights treaty to indicate their resolution to protect the rights of the world's 650 million persons with disabilities.

Representatives of states signed, at a solemn ceremony in the UN General Assembly Hall, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which becomes the first human rights treaty of the 21st century.

Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, claimed at a new conference shortly after the ceremony that the treaty was the most rapidly achieved human rights treaty in the history of the international law.

"This is the first step in empowering a community that now will have a set of national, regional and international instruments for the advancement of their rights to the great benefit of all of us, " she said.

The treaty, which went from dream to reality in three years and adopted by the UN General Assembly late 2006, will enter into force when ratified by 20 countries.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, who chaired the ceremony, said the substance of the treaty is more encouraging still.

"Ratification has to be followed by vigorous implementation and oversight at the national and local levels," she stressed. "Only then will the real benefits of this legislation be felt by millions of persons with disabilities through the world. Only then will our own high expectations prove truly justified."

Migiro thus urged member states to consider signing, ratifying and implementing this important Convention without delay.

The Convention specifically prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in all areas of life, including employment, access to justice and the right to education, health services and access to transportation.

It requires that public spaces and buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, and it seeks improvements in information and communications infrastructure, as well.

The Convention also recognizes that a change of attitude is vital if disabled people are to achieve equality. States parties will not only have to combat negative stereotypes and prejudices, they will also be expected to promote awareness of people's abilities and contributions to society.

The treaty breaks ground in other ways as well, including through its stress on social development. It recognizes that the input, ideas and efforts of the disability community are critical to society's overall progress. It emphasizes that their contributions can supply a crucial boost to the development agenda, while simultaneously accommodating the needs of this important constituency as well.

Source: Xinhua