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The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
body of 18 experts that meets two times a year in
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
to consider the reports submitted by 164 UN member statesAs of March 2015. on their compliance with the ''
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote, ...
'' (CRPD), and to examine individual petitions concerning 94 States PartiesAs of March 2015. to the Optional Protocol. The committee is one of ten UN human rights treaty bodies, each responsible for overseeing the implementation of a particular treaty. The
Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per ...
, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and the
Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee also monitors the Convention's three optional protoc ...
are among the other United Nations treaty bodies. UN member states that have ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol have agreed to allow persons within their jurisdiction to submit complaints to the Committee requesting a determination whether provisions of the Convention have been violated. All states parties are required to submit regular reports to the Committee outlining the legislative, judicial, policy and other measures they have taken to implement the rights affirmed in the convention. The first report is due within two years of ratifying the convention; thereafter reports are due every four years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the state party in the form of "concluding observations". The members of the committee, who must be "of high moral standing and recognized competence and experience in the field covered by the present Convention", are elected by the member states on an individual basis or " personal capacity", not as representatives of their countries. CRPD Article 34 also mandates "balanced gender representation" and "participation of experts with disabilities." They serve four-year terms, with one-half of their number elected every second year.Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 34. The
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
assists the work of the committee, and maintains a website with links to all documentation considered by the committee, and documents issued by the committee, such as concluding observations on state reports.


History

Following the Convention coming into force on 3 May 2008, the initial membership of the committee was elected by secret ballot at the first Conference of States' Parties to the convention on 3 November 2008 in New York. The first chair, elected at the first session in February 2009, was Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, who was succeeded in February 2010 by Ron McCallum. The current chair is Rosemary Kayess of Australia, whose term lasts until the end of 2022. The Committee initially consisted of 12 members, however once the Convention achieved 80 ratifications the Committee expanded to 18 members. Half of members were elected for two-year terms and half elected for four years. Since then, members have been elected for four-year terms, with half the members elected every two years by the Conference of States Parties.


Membership

The membership of the committee is as follows (as of June 2022):


Review of Parties' Periodic Reports

The Parties to the convention are to submit periodic reports to the committee. Before the report is due, the Committee provides a List of Issues, created with input from civil society. Often a "shadow report" will be submitted by non-government organizations (NGOs). Ultimately, the Committee agrees on a set of Concluding Observations. As described in the CRPD's Article 35, parties' reports should describe "measures taken to give effect to its obligations under the ... Convention and ... the progress made in that regard" and may also describe "factors and difficulties" affecting their fulfilment of Convention obligations. Similar to the record of other human rights bodies, most reports have been submitted late, some not at all. In 2013, the Committee issued Simplified Reporting Procedures. The committee's intent was not only to assist states parties, but also to foster interest from and participation by persons with disabilities, national monitoring groups, and human rights organizations.


General Comments

The committee has issued seven General Comments, intended to offer interpretation of CRPD provisions that will be useful for states in preparing their periodic reports. These are: Two examples of General Comments that attracted experts and organizations' analysis, with areas of agreement and of disagreement were General Comment No. 4 on CRPD Article 24, the right to inclusive education, and General Comment No. 6 on CRPD Article 5, the right to equality and non-discrimination. In the 2016 deliberations, several organizations argued unsuccessfully that a "sensory exception" to inclusive education would not risk perpetuating harmful practices of school segregation. In the 2018 deliberations, some experts and organizations debated which kinds of employment policies would most effectively address disability discrimination.Atrey, S., Fredman, S., Campbell, M., Samtani, S., Brickhill, J., & Ramalekana, N. (2017, Nov 30). Achieving Transformative Equality for Persons with Disabilities: Submission to the CRPD Committee for General Comment No.6 on Article 5 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Manuscript submitted for publication. Oxford Human Rights Hub.http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/sandra-fredman-meghancampbell-shreya-atrey-jason-brickhill-sanya-samtani-and-nomfundoramalenka-achieving-transformative-equality-for-persons-withdisabilities-submission-to-the-committee-o/ Retrieved 30 August 2020.


Notes


References


External links


Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Members of the Committee
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