On 1st July the United Kingdom will assume the revolving Presidency of the European Council. The various activities being planned for Britain’s six months’ Presidency include a Conference on disability, due to be held on 8-9 November 2005. The issues to be discussed at the conference are contained in a report entitled “Improving the living conditions of the disabled” (on http://www.strategy.gov.uu/output/page5046.asp). The presentation of the biennial report on disability is scheduled for December, while a meeting of the European NGOs that deal with disability is due to be held in July; it will be devoted to the UN Convention on the rights of the disabled. It is being held on the margins of the meeting of the EU Council Working Group on Human Rights (COHOM), in preparation for the meeting of the 6th ‘ad hoc’ commission in New York in August this year.
