HRBA Portal

• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• OHCHR Issue Page: Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Huritalk Insights Issue No. 1:  The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities    French Version      Spanish Version
• International Disability Alliance
• International Disability and Development Consortium
  
• UN Enable - Rights  & Dignities of Persons with Disabilities

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations. The Convention entered into force on 3May 2008.

The Convention marks a “paradigm shift” in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects”  of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.

The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

Text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Text of the Optional Protocol

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the body of independent experts which monitors implementation of the Convention by the States Parties.

All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially within two years of accepting the Convention and thereafter every four years. The Committee examines each report and shall make such suggestions and general recommendations on the report as it may consider appropriate and shall forward these to the State Party concerned.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention gives the Committee competence to examine individual complaints with regard to alleged violations of the Convention by States parties to the Protocol.

The Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development

The United Nations Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities provides for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to monitor the implementation of the Rules. The Special Rapporteur reports yearly to the Commission for Social Development. The reports present findings on the promotion and monitoring of the implementation of the Standard Rules and present recommendations, as requested by the Commission, on their further development. In carrying out his/her functions, the Special Rapporteur establishes a direct dialogue with Member States and with local non-governmental organizations and experts, seeking their views and comments on any information intended to be included in the reports.

View statements and reports of the Special Rapporteur on Disabilities

Inclusive Education: Including students with learning disabilities in regular classrooms, Lebanon

Inclusive Governance: Promoting Participation of Disadvantaged Groups: Participation of the disabled population in elections in Afghanistan