A/RES/57/229 Reaffirming the need to promote and protect the equal and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, aware of the contribution that a convention could make in this regard and thus convinced of the need to continue to consider proposals, 1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities on its first session; 3 2. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the report of the Ad Hoc Committee to the Commission on Social Development at its forty-first session and to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-ninth session; 3. Decides that the Ad Hoc Committee should hold, within existing resources, at least one meeting in 2003 of a duration of ten working days, prior to the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly; 4. Encourages States to hold meetings or seminars to contribute to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee, in cooperation with, as appropriate, the Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development, and non-governmental organizations; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States, observer States, relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, including relevant human rights treaty bodies and the Special Rapporteur, on proposals for a convention including, inter alia, questions relating to its nature and structure and the elements to be considered, including the work done in the field of social development, human rights and non-discrimination, as well as issues of follow-up and monitoring and the complementarity between a new instrument and existing instruments; 6. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Ad Hoc Committee at its second session a comprehensive report on the views submitted, to be issued at least six weeks before the commencement of the second session; 7. Invites the regional commissions and intergovernmental organizations, within their respective mandates, as well as non-governmental organizations, national disability and human rights institutions and independent experts with an interest in the matter, to make available to the Ad Hoc Committee suggestions and possible elements to be considered in proposals for a convention; 8. Welcomes the contributions of the Special Rapporteur and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee, and invites them to continue to collaborate with the Ad Hoc Committee and with each other in this regard; 9. Urges that further efforts be made to ensure the active participation of non-governmental organizations in the Ad Hoc Committee in accordance with General Assembly resolution 56/510 of 23 July 2002 and with the decision of the Ad Hoc Committee on the modalities for the participation of non-governmental organizations in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee; 4 _______________ 3 4 2 See A/57/357. Ibid., para.10.