end of the meeting, the committee had agreed upon the content of the majority of the draft articles, which according to chair Don MacKay, were "very well supported". The next session was scheduled for August, which MacKay proposed be focused on the remaining substantive issues within the text rather than the content or linguistic nature of the articles. He challenged states to return willing to compromise in order not to delay the adoption of the convention. The meeting was held from 14 to 25 August 2006. New Zealand again brought a delegation which this time consisted of officials from the Office of Disability Issues, MFAT and the Human Rights Commission and members of DPA and a mental health consumer advocacy group. A significant outcome of the meeting was the establishment of a Drafting Committee tasked with ensuring uniformity of terminology throughout the text of the draft convention, harmonizing the versions in the official languages of the United Nations and reporting on the results of its work to the Ad Hoc Committee. On 5 December 2006 at a meeting in New York, Drafting Committee chair Stefan Barriga presented the results of its work to the Ad Hoc Committee, still chaired by New Zealander Don MacKay. The Committee forwarded this draft report with the final text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the optional protocol to the General Assembly for adoption. The Convention and its Optional Protocol were officially adopted by the Plenary of the General Assembly by consensus on 13 December 2006. On 30 March 2007, it opened for signatures. New Zealand signed it alongside 81 other nations at a signing ceremony in at the UN in New York. New Zealand was represented by Minister for Disability Issues, Ruth Dyson, who spoke at the ceremony. New Zealand ratified the convention on 25 September 2008. It continues to monitor its progress in the implementation of the Convention in accordance with Article 35 through monitoring reports, the first of which was submitted to the UN in March 2011. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is scheduled to review its implementation in New Zealand September 2014. Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights New Zealand also contributed to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition the death penalty. References