Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol Thereto : Amplified Barriers in Diverse Contexts

Calls upon those States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto as a matter of priority;

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

Requests United Nations agencies and organizations, and invites intergovernmental and non‑governmental organizations, to continue to strengthen efforts undertaken to disseminate accessible and easy-to-understand information on the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto, including to children and young people to promote their understanding, and to assist States Parties in implementing their obligations under those instruments;

Calls upon those States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled;¹⁴

Encourages States to review and repeal any law or policy that restricts the full and effective participation in political and public life of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others or discriminates against persons with disabilities, including with regard to accessing a service or facility open to the public, and to establish accessible and effective channels of redress for discrimination on the basis of disability, considering also diverse contexts that may amplify barriers faced by persons with disabilities to access their rights;

Calls upon States to take effective and appropriate measures to remove all barriers preventing persons with disabilities from having effective access to justice on an equal basis with others, and to ensure the full enjoyment of equality and non‑discrimination by persons with disabilities in the fields of equality and non‑discrimination and access to justice, including by training professionals in the justice system for such purposes;

Urges States to take steps to eliminate multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against all women and girls with disabilities through repealing discriminatory laws, policies and practices, to take all effective measures to remove any other barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities in accessing, inter alia, the physical, social, economic and cultural environment, transportation, health and education, information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and other facilities and services open or provided to the public and to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all rights stipulated in the Convention, including to effectively and fully participate in public life and in the conduct of public affairs;

Also urges States to ensure that persons with disabilities in different contexts and conditions are provided with adequate support in order to participate fully in the labour market, including by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability with regard to all matters concerning all forms of employment, recognizing the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others;

Further urges States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate violence and discrimination against persons with disabilities, and to ensure that victims and survivors with disabilities of all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, have prompt and universal access to quality social and healthcare services, such as psychological and counselling services, as well as access to justice, including legal services, to end impunity;

Calls upon all States to ensure the full enjoyment by children with disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, on an equal basis with other children, in recognition that discrimination against any child on the basis of a disability is a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of the child, to enhance inclusion and address barriers faced by children with disabilities, including addressing discriminatory, attitudinal and environmental barriers to their participation and inclusion in society and in the community, to develop gender- and age-sensitive policies and capacities to ensure the rights and address the particular needs of children with disabilities, including children in vulnerable situations, including migrant children, children without parental care, children in street situations and child victims of trafficking, and those affected by climate change, and to prevent and respond to all forms of violence, including cases of sexual and gender-based violence;

Calls upon States to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access inclusive and accessible quality primary, secondary and tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others and to facilitate the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in education by taking appropriate steps through the provision of information in accessible and alternative communication formats, reasonable accommodation and other support as required, while also promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills among persons with disabilities to address divides in science, technology and innovation, responding to the diverse contexts that may amplify the barriers faced by persons with disabilities to fulfil their right to inclusive education;

Urges States to ensure that all schools are safe and free from violence, such as bullying, including cyberbullying, and sexual harassment, including peer-to-peer sexual harassment, online and offline, and that they address all forms of violence against children with disabilities, including with particular attention to girls with disabilities and in vulnerable situations;

Calls upon Member States, the United Nations system, civil society and other relevant stakeholders to fully include persons with disabilities in all stages of addressing situations of risk, including armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards, especially in areas where they experience additional barriers due to their disability, and recognize that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health without discrimination, including through providing timely and appropriate, quality and free or affordable healthcare services and programmes as provided to other persons in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programmes, and provide healthcare services needed by persons with disabilities specifically because of their disabilities;

Urges Member States to promote a paradigm shift in mental health, inter alia, in the fields of clinical practice, policy, research, medical education and investment, through the promotion of disability-inclusive, community- and evidence-based and people-centred services and by respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights, individual autonomy of persons using or seeking to use mental health services, including by relying on peer support, as appropriate, and by providing a range of voluntary supported decision-making mechanisms, such as safeguards against abuse, coercion and undue influence within support arrangements, over a model based on the dominance of biomedical interventions, medicalization and institutionalization;

Calls upon Member States to ensure the availability of and access to healthcare services for all persons with disabilities, as well as to remove physical, attitudinal, social, structural and financial barriers, provide quality standards of care and scale up efforts for their empowerment and inclusion, noting with concern that persons with disabilities continue to experience unmet health needs;

Encourages States to adopt inclusive strategies that address the barriers to the participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations at all levels of decision-making processes, and to adopt a framework for equality, non‑discrimination and the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities;

Encourages Member States and other relevant stakeholders to consider appropriate measures to ensure adequate, predictable and sustainable financing for disability inclusion, including through voluntary contributions to the United Nations Global Disability Fund, and to explore, as appropriate, innovative financing modalities on a voluntary basis, with a view to strengthening the Fund’s capacity to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at all levels;

Calls upon States to ensure the full and effective participation of and consultation with persons with disabilities, including through their representative organizations, in the development and implementation of policies and programmes for the implementation of the Convention, as well as in other relevant issues at the national and local levels, including through the inclusion of persons with disabilities in boards, organs and institutions and integrating consultative processes in such policies and programmes as appropriate;

Also calls upon States to promote other appropriate forms of assistance and support to persons with disabilities to ensure their access to information, to provide information intended for the general public to persons with disabilities using accessible formats and technologies useful for persons with different kinds of disabilities in a timely manner and without additional cost, and to expand the availability and improve the affordability of information and communications technologies, as well as to facilitate cooperation in research and access to scientific and technical knowledge to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities;

Urges Member States, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to close the digital divides and promote the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities, addressing the challenges associated with accessibility, affordability, digital literacy and digital skills, and awareness;

Calls upon States to ensure the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live independently in the community with choices equal to others, including by ensuring that persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement and that persons with disabilities have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community;

Also calls upon States to promote and facilitate access to and sharing of accessible and assistive technologies, especially new and emerging ones, including information and communications systems, mobility aids, assistive devices and other assistive technologies, by persons with disabilities, and to promote research and development in this regard, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimal cost and at an early stage;

Urges States to consider laws, policies and procedures relating to public procurement to ensure that persons with disabilities can access any service or facility open to the public on an equal basis with others, and in this regard encourages States to disseminate information to and work with the private sector, including employers and other relevant stakeholders, to implement accessibility measures for persons with disabilities in any facilities or services that are open or provided to the public;

Also urges States to consider investment in care and support and promote legal systems or frameworks in care and support policies and infrastructure, and promote national legislation and capacity-building to ensure universal access to affordable and quality services for all, including childcare, in the health and support sector for persons with disabilities and older persons, which is necessary to address care needs for persons throughout their life course, and to promote universal access to social protection, including paid maternity, paternity and parental leave and social protection for all workers, including for both informal workers and those in non‑standard forms of employment;

Urges Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the United Nations system and civil society, to promote the rights of persons with disabilities in rural areas, including women with disabilities, and girls with disabilities as appropriate, by ensuring access on an equal basis to productive employment and decent work, economic and financial resources and disability-inclusive infrastructure and services, in particular in relation to health and education, as well as by ensuring that their priorities and needs are fully incorporated into policies and programmes, through, inter alia, their participation in decision-making processes;

Calls upon States to strengthen efforts to empower all persons with disabilities and enhance their participation and promote their leadership in society through taking measures to address and remove all barriers that prevent or restrict their access and full inclusion and participation in the community on an equal basis with others, including in the government and public sector, the private sector, civil society and all branches and bodies of the national monitoring system of the Convention, and to work to ensure that persons with disabilities are closely consulted and actively involved, through their representative organizations, in the design, implementation and monitoring of all legislation, policies and programmes which have an impact on their lives;

Encourages States to provide support to existing organizations and promote the creation of organizations, including civil society organizations and networks of persons with disabilities, as appropriate, and to promote and support persons with disabilities in taking leadership roles in public decision-making bodies at all levels, recognizing the importance for States of having an open, inclusive and transparent engagement with civil society in the implementation of measures on persons with disabilities;

Calls upon States to collect and analyse data disaggregated by income, sex, race, age, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographical location and other characteristics relevant to national contexts to assist, inter alia, with the identification and eradication of barriers and all forms of discrimination, including multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, that prevent persons with disabilities from enjoying all the rights stipulated in the Convention, to guide inclusive policy planning and to be used on an ongoing basis to assess and advance participation, and also calls upon States to improve data-collection systems for adequate monitoring and evaluation frameworks on the implementation of the Convention and the Sustainable Development Goals for all persons with disabilities;

Urges States and other relevant stakeholders, including national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles,¹⁵ where they exist, 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, sex and age for specific indicators, using appropriate measurement tools, including, as appropriate, the United Nations Children’s Fund Module on Child Functioning and the Washington Group short set of questions on disability and other data-collection methodologies, to assist States in measuring the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 associated targets and programming policies in the context of the Goals;

Encourages States, United Nations entities and relevant international organizations, in partnership with persons with disabilities, including through their representative organizations, inter alia:

Encourages the United Nations system, international financial and development institutions, and other international and regional organizations:

Encourages the Secretariat to make the United Nations more accessible for persons and representatives with disabilities, in line with paragraphs 33 to 37 of resolution 73/341 of 12 September 2019, and recalls all relevant accessibility-related resolutions of the General Assembly, including resolutions 76/154 of 16 December 2021, 76/273 of 29 June 2022, 77/189 of 15 December 2022 and 77/240 of 16 December 2022;

Invites the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities to address and engage in an interactive dialogue with the General Assembly annually, under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”, as a way to enhance communication between the Assembly and the Committee;

Encourages the Secretary-General, in line with the recommendations of his report on disability inclusion in the United Nations system,¹⁷ to continue to explore options or modalities to support, through sustainable and predictable resources, the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, to mainstream disability inclusion into the work of the Secretariat entities and support implementation across the United Nations system;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session a progress report on steps taken by the United Nations system towards mainstreaming disability inclusion, including implementation of the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, within existing resources;

Calls upon Member States, the United Nations and other relevant stakeholders to take part in implementing the recommendations endorsed by the Steering Committee on Accessibility in June 2019;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all Committee members can participate in the work of the Committee on an equal basis by guaranteeing necessary support and access to information, within existing resources and when requested with sufficient time in advance, including by providing sign language assistance needed by Committee members, in accordance with article 34 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and rule 7 of the rules of procedure of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly, prior to the start of its eighty-second session, a comprehensive report made available in accessible formats marking the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the Assembly, assessing progress, good practices, areas of opportunity and challenges in the implementation of the Convention, in consultation with persons with disabilities, including through their representative organizations, relevant United Nations entities, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the United Nations Global Disability Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund, taking into account the views of relevant stakeholders and using existing available materials, and to include a segment on the status of the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto;

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to maintain the levels of resources required by the relevant offices in the United Nations system for the fulfilment of their tasks with respect to their work on the rights of and inclusive development for persons with disabilities.