COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES CONCLUDES FIFTEENTH SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities today concluded its fifteenth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Chile, Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Thailand and Uganda on how they implement the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee also adopted the report of the session.

Summarizing the session, Sylvia Judith Quan-Chang, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee, stated that the Committee had adopted seven concluding observations and eight lists of issues for the States parties which would be considered in the coming sessions. A campaign had been launched to secure universal ratification of the Convention. The Committee had also adopted draft guidelines for the establishment of the independent monitoring mechanisms in the Committee's work, which would soon be published on the Committee's website. Draft guidelines for the reporting procedure had been adopted as well - the process which would be put in place in 2017. Ms. Quan-Chang thanked all members of the Committee for the very hard work carried out in the course of the fifteenth session. She also thanked all the stakeholders who had contributed to the success of the session, and acknowledged the contribution of Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Committee Chairperson, who had had to return to her country for personal reasons.

The Secretary of the Committee informed that the Committee had also adopted decisions on two communications under its Optional Protocol, as well as a note on all communications received in the interim period between the two sessions. The Committee had considered matters pertaining to an inquiry procedure under Articles 7 and 8 under the Optional Protocol and had decided to set up an inquiry procedure. The Committee had adopted draft guidelines on periodic reporting (simplified reporting procedure), and decided to open a consultation process about these draft guidelines with a broad range of stakeholders. The Secretary announced the names of the Rapporteurs of States parties whose reports would be considered in the sixteenth session.

A representative of International Disability Alliance acknowledged the importance of the Committee’s work in promoting the role of the organizations of persons with disabilities. The Alliance stressed the significance of the commencement of the campaign for the universal ratification of the Convention. The Alliance referred to several cases of persons with disabilities, relating to Croatia, Russia and Turkey, before the European Court of Human Rights. In terms of webcasting, over the past weeks, there had been more than 1,000 viewers from over 40 countries spanning the globe. The Alliance encouraged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to move swiftly to providing the webcast services themselves. Together with other non-governmental organizations, the Alliance would soon launch a common website on treaty body elections with all information on nominations and elections on all treaty bodies.

During the session, in addition to considering country reports, the Committee continued its discussion on the draft General Comment 3 on article 6 of the Convention, which deals with women and girls with disabilities. On 19 April, the Committee marked the tenth anniversary of the Convention by hearing statements by the representatives of several States parties, United Nations bodies and civil society organizations, as well as testimonials by civil society on the impact of the Convention on persons with disabilities. The Committee also held a day of general discussion on the right to live independently and be included in the community, article 19 of the Convention, with a view to preparing a General Comment on that article.

The concluding observations and recommendations for the parties considered will be made available on the session’s webpage. Detailed summaries of all public meetings of the Committee in the fifteenth session can be found here.

The sixteenth session of the Committee will be held from 15 August to 2 September 2016, during which the Committee will consider the reports of Bolivia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Italy, United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.

More information on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be found at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/CRPDIndex.aspx



For use of the information media; not an official record

CRPD16/12E