MDAC’s Gábor Gombos elected to UN Disability Rights Committee

1 September 2010, UN Headquarters, New York. MDAC is delighted to announce that Gábor Gombos, MDAC’s Senior Advocacy Officer, has been elected to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The election took place today at the annual Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at UN headquarters in New York. Gábor’s term starts on 1 January 2011.
 
MDAC’s Board and staff congratulate Gabor’s wonderful achievement. Speaking on behalf of MDAC, Oliver Lewis, Executive Director, said, ‘Gabor’s in-depth knowledge of disability rights theory and practice across continents will enrich the Committee’s work to advance the rights of 650 million people with disabilities worldwide.’
 
Gábor, a former theoretical physicist, has been a human rights advocate for twenty years. He led MDAC’s input into the negotiation of the CRPD, and in December 2009 was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in recognition of his work in the field of human rights of persons with disabilities. You can see Gabor’s election leaflet here.
 
It is an honour and a privilege for everyone involved with MDAC that Gábor has been elected. MDAC supports and respects the independence of UN treaty bodies, whose members serve in their personal capacity. Gábor and MDAC recognise that Gabor’s dual role as a CRPD Committee member and an MDAC staff member who sits on a human rights treaty body may give rise to potential or perceived conflicts of interests. MDAC will address such potentialities transparently and according to the organisation’s existing conflict of interest policy. The involvement of human rights advocates and activists in the Committee is critical and the Committee will certainly be enriched by drawing on Gábor’s expertise.
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