By IDA

 - March 9, 2018

After almost 4 weeks of hard work from the Committee members, the CRPD Committee Secretariat, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, Civil Society Organizations, and IDA, among others, the 19th session of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has come to an end. 

During this session, the CRPD Committee held interactive dialogues and adopted concluding observatios on the States of Haiti (CRPD/C/HTI/CO/1), Nepal (CRPD/C/NPL/CO/1), Oman (CRPD/C/OMN/CO/1), Russian Federation (CRPD/C/RUS/CO/1), Seychelles (CRPD/C/SYC/CO/1), Slovenia (CRPD/C/SVN/CO/1) and Sudan (CRPD/C/SDN/CO/1).

The Committee also adopted, under the Simplified Reporting Procedure, List of Issues prior to Report on Costa Rica (CRPD/C/CRI/QPR/2-3), New Zealand (CRPD/C/NZL/QPR/2-3), Paraguay (CRPD/C/PRY/QPR/2-3) and Republic of Korea (CRPD/C/KOR/QPR/2-3).

IDA, together with other key partners, provided support to organisations of persons with disabilities from Haiti, Nepal, Oman, the Russian Federation and Slovenia, to actively engage with the CRPD Committee members in private meetings and attend the constructive dialogues between the Committee and the States, throughout the session.

The Committee adopted the General Comment No 6 on Article 5 of the CRPD (Equality and non-discrimination). The highlight points of this general comment are: the innovative concept of inclusive equality, detailed guidance on reasonable accommodation,

The work has started towards the adoption of the General Comment No 7 on Articles 4.3 and 33.3 of the CRPD. By the end of the session, the Committee endorsed a draft general comment, which will be posted in the upcoming weeks together with a call for comments by interested stakeholders. The deadline for comments will be 15th May 2018.

With regard to countries to be considered at its 20th session (27 August – 21 September 2018), the Committee decided on Algeria, Bulgaria, Cuba, Macedonia, Malta, Poland, Philippines and South Africa,  

The Committee has also decided that during the 20th session, the Committee will adopt list of issues prior to reporting for Austria, Azerbaijan, Germany and Mongolia under the Simplified Reporting Procedure.

Furthermore, it has also decided that the 10th Pre-sessional Working Group, in September 2018, will adopt List of Issues on Niger, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Turkey and Vanuatu.

During the closing, IDA congratulated the CRPD Committee for its fruitful session and, in particular for the adoption of General Comment No 6 on Article 5 (Equality and Non-Discrimination) and for the work undertaken towards a General Comment No 7 on Articles 4.3 and 33.3 of the CRPD, on DPOs participation in CRPD implementation and monitoring. Furthermore, IDA reiterated its call to States to promote women with disabilities as candidates in the upcoming elections at the 11th Conference of States Parties to the CRPD next June, stressing the need for close consultation with organisations of persons with disabilities in nomination and elections processes.  

*Download the closing statement delivered by the International Disability Alliance 

For more information on the 19th session, please visit the Committee’s session website.

Contact: squan [at] ida-secretariat.org , jiperezbello [at] ida-secretariat.org  

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