Overview:
Villaney "Lany" Remengesau has made history. The Palauan disability rights advocate has become the first person from Palau — and the first from the Pacific — ever elected to a United Nations human rights body, securing a seat on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her election marks a milestone decades in the making.
Disability advocate’s landmark win gives Pacific region its first-ever seat on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
By: L.N. Reklai
KOROR, Palau — Villaney “Lany” Remengesau has made history, becoming the first person from Palau — and the first from the Pacific region — ever elected to a United Nations human rights body, following her successful election to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The June 9 election caps more than two decades of advocacy by Remengesau on behalf of persons with disabilities at the national, regional and international levels. She will serve on the committee for the 2027–2030 term.
“This achievement is a testament to decades of hard work and the collective voice of the disability community in Palau,” Remengesau said.
Remengesau was joined in the historic milestone by Samoa’s Mataafa Faatino Utumapu, who was also elected to the committee on the same day, making it the first time two Pacific candidates have won seats on the influential UN body simultaneously.
The CRPD is one of several UN treaty bodies that monitors how member states implement their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Remengesau, 41, brings more than 20 years of experience to the role. A woman with a disability herself, she has long served as secretary of OMEKESANG, Palau’s national disabled persons’ organization, and is a former co-chair of the Pacific Disability Forum. She was also instrumental in shaping Palau’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPPL 11-36), landmark legislation signed into law by President Surangel Whipps Jr. on Sept. 30, 2024, which established a national coordinating committee and an Office of Persons with Disabilities.
In 2024, the Palau Media Council named her its Most Impactful Person of the Year.
Her path to the UN committee began in earnest at the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March, where Palau’s Minister Gustav Aitaro championed her candidacy before Pacific leaders and partners.
“She is not just Palau’s candidate; she is our candidate — the Pacific’s candidate,” Aitaro said at the time, as reported by the Island Times. (Read the full background story at islandtimes.org.)
The Office of the President extended congratulations to Remengesau, calling her election “a reflection of her decades of advocacy for the rights of persons with disabilities, advancing inclusive governance at national, regional, and international levels.”
Officials also expressed gratitude to every partner nation that extended trust and support to Palau’s candidate throughout the campaign.
For Palau, the election signals both a national milestone and a broader regional achievement, ensuring that the voices and realities of Pacific island communities will be formally represented in one of the United Nations’ most consequential human rights forums.
Background reporting by L.N. Reklai, Island Times. For more, visit islandtimes.org.
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