The CRPD Committee closed its 29th session after four weeks of work including eight States reviews and two sessions for Follow-up Inquiry reports. The Committee will soon publish its Concluding Observations on the countries under review, namely, Andorra, Austria, Germany, Israel, Malawi, Mauritania, Mongolia, and Paraguay.
At the closing, the CRPD Committee communicated its main decisions of the session. As presented by the rapporteur Ms. Vivian Torrijos, the CRPD Committee member decided, among other things, to:
- Adopt Concluding Observations on Andorra, Austria, Germany, Israel, Malawi, Mauritania, Mongolia, and Paraguay.
- Adopt views on three individual communications and decided to discontinue two other individual communications.
- Adopt a statement calling on States to deepen their efforts on deinstitutionalization in line with the CRPD Committee’s Guidelines on deinstitutionalization, including during emergencies.
- Confirm its plans for the upcoming 30th session and the 19th PSWG and adopt the provisional Program of Work.
- Continue engaging with UNOG and OHCHR with a view to continue improving accessibility and the provision of reasonable accommodation during the session.
- Adopt a statement on the right of persons with disabilities to social protection.
In the closing statement on behalf of IDA, Juan Ignacio Pérez Bello, Senior Advisor on Human Rights, highlighted, among other things: “Moving to substantive developments, IDA is glad that the process towards general comments no. 9 and 10 is advancing steadily under the leadership and supervision of the Working Group on Article 11 CRPD, with the support of the Secretariat and of relevant stakeholders with technical expertise to contribute as appropriate. IDA looks forward to further information and to contribute to this process in the appropriate ways and opportunities, given its role as the unique alliance of global and regional representative organizations of persons with disabilities.”
Find the video of the closing session here.
Find the closing session speech by IDA in a Word file here.
If you would like to review what happened throughout the weeks of public sessions, you can check IDA’s weekly newsletter below:
Newsletter 1st week (14th to 18th August)
Newsletter 2nd week (21th to 25th August)
Newsletter 3rd week (28th August to 1st September)
You can find all the information and documents related to the session here.
Upcoming 30th session and 19th pre-sessional working group
At the closing, the CRPD Committee also confirmed its plans towards March 2024, for the 30th session and 19th pre-sessional working group. National organizations of persons with disabilities should get ready to work towards the session, submit alternative reports, and participate in the session and PSWG.
During the 30th session (4th to 22nd March 2024), the CRPD Committee will undertake the reviews of Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Sweden, and Zambia.
At the 19th Pre-Sessional Working Group (25th to 28th March 2024), the CRPD Committee will adopt the List of Issues on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Pakistan, Republic of Moldova, and Sri Lanka, and the List of Issues prior to Reporting on Cyprus, initiating its second review cycle.
All the info on the 30th session and on the 19th Pre-Sessional Working Group can be found on the respective CRPD Committee’s websites, here and here.
