Source description last updated: 4 November 2020

In brief: The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the UN body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Coverage on ecoi.net:

State Reports, Concluding Observations, NGO reports and NHRI reports.

Covered monthly on ecoi.net, for countries of priorities A-C.

Mission/Mandate/Objectives:

The CRPD monitors the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by its State parties (OHCHR: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Questions and answers, undated). The Committee held its first session from 23 to 27 February 2009 (OHCHR: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Sessions, undated).

“The Convention 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 adaptation 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.” (OHCHR: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Questions and answers, undated)

Funding:

UN budget

Scope of reporting:

Geographic focus: All state parties to the Convention

Thematic focus: Reports published by the CRPD cover issues related to the rights of persons with disabilities

Methodology:

“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 Committee shall meet in Geneva and normally hold two sessions per year.” (OHCHR: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, undated)

“The Committee is a body of 18 independent experts which monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The members of the Committee serve in their individual capacity, not as government representatives. They are elected from a list of persons nominated by the States at the Conference of the State Parties for a four year term with a possibility of being re-elected once […].” (OHCHR: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Questions and answers, undated)

“A shadow report, sometimes called an alternative report, is a document written by NGOs evaluating government efforts to meet the obligations of a human rights treaty. […] NGOs have the opportunity to present a written report on implementation of the treaty. The NGO shadow report provides a response to the State party report, including clarification of factual issues, indication of misleading information, or information on a situation that is absent from the State party report. Each of the treaty monitoring bodies has established a process for NGOs to present their information orally as well as in writing.” (IWRAW – International Women’s Rights Action Watch, Basic Facts: Women’s Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Treaties, undated)

Language(s) of publications:

Official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish)

Further reading / links:

The full text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the Convention is available via the following link:

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/ConventionRightsPersonsWithDisabilities.aspx

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/OptionalProtocolRightsPersonsWithDisabilities.aspx

 

All links accessed 4 November 2020.