The Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Situations of Risk and Humanitarian Emergencies

A/HRC/RES/31/6View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2016.

What subjects does this mandate have?

16 subjects

Access to Information Accessibility Administration of Justice Anti-Discrimination Measures Armed Conflicts Disaster Preparedness Disaster Relief Equality Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Natural Disasters Persons with Disabilities Popular Participation Risk Management Sustainable Development Technology Transfer

What’s in this document?

36 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the fact that, to date, 160 States have signed and 161 States and one regional integration organization have ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and that 92 States have signed and 88 States have ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention, and calls upon those States and regional integration organizations that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention and the Optional Protocol to consider doing so as a matter of priority;

Encourages States that have ratified the Convention and have submitted one or more reservations to it to initiate a process to review regularly the effect and continued relevance of such reservations, and to consider the possibility of withdrawing them;

Welcomes the thematic study on the rights of persons with disabilities under article 11 of the Convention, on situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,⁵ and calls upon States and all relevant stakeholders to consider its findings and recommendations with a view to implementing these recommendations as appropriate;

⁵A/HRC/31/30.

Calls upon States that are not yet party to the Convention, in accordance with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters;

Calls upon States and all relevant stakeholders to take effective and appropriate steps to facilitate the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters, having regard for the measures contemplated by the Convention, and urges States and all relevant stakeholders, in furtherance of this objective, to, inter alia:

Promote active participation of and meaningful consultation with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, including women, men, boys and girls with disabilities of all ages, at all levels in a manner consistent with article 4 (3) of the Convention;

Take into account persons with disabilities in their planning, response and recovery actions in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters, to identify and eliminate obstacles and barriers to ensuring their safety;

Ensure the effective management and dissemination of accessible information at all stages of response;

Mobilize adequate, timely and predictable resources to operationalize their commitment to emergency preparedness and response that are inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities, following a human rights-based approach to programming;

Build the capacity of stakeholders, both military and civilian, and peacekeeping personnel operating in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters, regarding the rights of persons with disabilities;

Ensure accessibility, including through universal design in programming, and in all post-emergency reconstruction and rebuilding, particularly during planning and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities;

Promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in existing United Nations frameworks that address situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters;

Consider developing internationally agreed standards and guidelines on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action;

Ensure the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in processes of monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian assistance, and ensure that they have adequate access to feedback mechanisms during situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters;

Strengthen the collection, management, disaggregation and analysis of information on persons with disabilities in order to foster inclusion and to address discrimination on the basis of disability, including multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination;

Encourage national statistical institutions and other participants in the negotiations held by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction on disaster risk reduction indicators and terminology to consider adopting indicators disaggregated by disability status, where relevant, and to ensure that terminology is inclusive of persons with disabilities;

Raise awareness of the importance of ensuring the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters;

Encourages States to take a human rights-based approach, with due regard for article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters;

Urges all parties to armed conflicts to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including their obligations under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the obligations applicable to them under the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, that may relate to the respect and protection of persons with disabilities, and to pay attention to the specific needs of persons with disabilities during armed conflicts;

Urges States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women and girls with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, to address violence against women and girls with disabilities in order to ensure the equal enjoyment of their rights, and to facilitate their role as leaders and active involvement and meaningful participation in decision-making;

Recognizes the importance of international cooperation and its promotion in support of national efforts to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, including with respect to ensuring the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies;

Encourages States to engage in international cooperation efforts, where required, aimed at enhancing their national capacities to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters, and invites the Office of the High Commissioner and relevant United Nations agencies to consider ways to foster international cooperation activities in this regard;

Encourages the mobilization of public and private resources on a sustainable basis to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities in development and underlines the need to promote and strengthen international cooperation at all levels, including with regard to capacity-building, by facilitating access to and sharing of accessible and assistive technology and through the transfer of technologies, as appropriate, the exchange of good practices and partnerships for development that are inclusive of persons with disabilities;

Calls upon States and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that all international cooperation, including international development programmes, is inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities and does not contribute to creating new barriers for them or reinforce existing inequalities;

Emphasizes the importance of mainstreaming the rights of persons with disabilities as an integral part of relevant sustainable development strategies, and encourages States to apply a human rights-based approach and to intensify efforts to advance the rights of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, consistent with their international obligations, including by engaging in close consultations with and actively involving persons with disabilities in the reporting processes leading up to the high-level political forum;

Urges States to continue to support the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by, inter alia, supporting the disaggregation of data by disability for specific indicators, where relevant, to assist States in measuring the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 associated targets and programming policies related to the Goals;

Encourages States to take into account the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities during the ongoing preparations for and their participation in the World Humanitarian Summit, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 23 and 24 May 2016;

Decides that its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities will be held at its thirty-fourth session, and that the debate will focus on article 5 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding equality and non-discrimination, and will have international sign interpretation and captioning;

Also decides that an interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities will be held at its thirty-seventh session, and that the debate will focus on article 13 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding access to justice, and will have international sign interpretation and captioning;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare its next annual study on the rights of persons with disabilities with a focus on article 5 of the Convention, and to prepare its subsequent study with a focus on article 13 of the Convention, in consultation with States and other relevant stakeholders, regional organizations, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities, and national human rights institutions, requiring contributions to be submitted in an accessible format, and requests that such stakeholder contributions, and the study and an easy-to-read-version of it, be made available on the website of the Office, in an accessible format, prior to the thirty-fourth and thirty-seventh sessions of the Human Rights Council;

Encourages the task force of the Human Rights Council on secretariat services and accessibility for persons with disabilities to report orally to the Council on its work;

Urges States to consider further integrating and mainstreaming the perspective and rights of persons with disabilities into the work of the Human Rights Council;

Encourages representative organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society, national monitoring bodies and human rights institutions to participate actively in the debates referred to in paragraphs 16 and 17 above, as well as in regular and special sessions of the Human Rights Council and its working groups;

Requests the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner and United Nations entities to continue the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services of the United Nations system, also taking into account relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and underlines that the Human Rights Council, including its Internet resources, should be fully accessible to persons with disabilities;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that the work of the Office of the High Commissioner with respect to the rights of persons with disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are adequately resourced for the fulfilment of their tasks;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Reissued for technical reasons on 15 April 2016.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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