The International Disability Alliance welcomes the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution on ‘Support systems to ensure community inclusion of persons with disabilities’ and expresses our sincere appreciation to the core-group of Mexico and New Zealand for leading the negotiation process, and to all co-sponsors of the text for endorsing the resolution. The resolution provides a comprehensive framework and set of commitments on how States should develop human rights-based support systems consistent with CRPD standards, which are essential for persons with disabilities to live with dignity, autonomy and independence, and to live independently in the community, as recognized in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This note provides a short summary of the resolution, followed by key excerpts (N.B headings are added, not in the original resolution)
Intersectionality: Specific attention is given to women and girls with disabilities, recognizing the intersectional discrimination they face and the importance of addressing their specific needs and barriers they face (PP19, PP23). The rights of children with disabilities are acknowledged, stressing the importance of support services that cater to their well-being and potential (PP20). Particular concerns are raised for persons with disabilities from marginalized groups, noting their disproportionate challenges in accessing support and services (PP21).
Addressing structural exclusion and discrimination: The text calls for actions to counter structural exclusion and discrimination, ensuring protection and justice for persons with disabilities, particularly women and girls, and children with intellectual disabilities (OP5).
Peer Support and deinstitutionalization: The resolution values peer support as critical for empowerment and independence (PP18) and acknowledges the CRPD guidelines on deinstitutionalization, especially in emergencies, as vital for fostering autonomy and community living (PP25).
Calls to action for States: A detailed call to action (OP4) encompasses various measures including the meaningful involvement of persons with disabilities, the establishment of supportive legal and policy frameworks, enhanced data collection, and investment in human rights-based support services.
International cooperation and development agenda: The resolution emphasizes international cooperation for promoting rights-based support systems (OP7) and encourages states to integrate disability rights into the sustainable development agenda, aiming for inclusivity and equity (PP22, OP9).
Future themes and accessibility initiatives: Upcoming HRC sessions (HRC58 in March 2025 and HRC61 in March 2026) will have reports, panels, and resolutions on digital technologies including AT, and disability-inclusive infrastructure (OP12, OP13, OP14). It calls for improved accessibility within the UN system, ensuring that all meetings and resources are fully accessible to persons with disabilities (OP15, OP16, OP17, OP19).
Support systems to ensure community inclusion of persons with disabilities’ A/HRC/55/L.8/Rev.1
PP15 Taking into account the fact that human rights-based support and care systems, comprising disability-inclusive policies, persons, products and services, are essential for persons with disabilities to participate fully and effectively in society, on an equal basis with others, to live with dignity, autonomy and independence, and to live independently in the community, as recognized in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
PP17 Concerned that some traditional care models, which are not human rights-based, have placed persons with disabilities as passive recipients of care, without agency, leading to a loss of autonomy, economic disempowerment, and segregation and isolation from the rest of the community or from families, and that these models can lead to paternalistic attitudes and practices that heighten the risk of violence against and exploitation and abuse of persons with disabilities and are detrimental to gender equality, and that many persons with disabilities face barriers to social inclusion owing to traditional care models predicated on social constructs that equate disability with dependence,
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination
PP10 Reaffirming the need to mainstream gender and age perspectives and to take disability inclusive measures to address multiple, aggravated and intersecting forms of discrimination, including ableism and ageism, in all efforts to promote gender equality and the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities,
(a) Women and girls with disabilities
PP19 Deeply concerned that women and girls with disabilities of all ages face multiple, aggravated and intersecting forms of stigma and discrimination, which constitute barriers to community inclusion not only compared to other women and girls without disabilities but also compared to men and boys with disabilities, and are also disproportionally exposed to violence, including sexual and gender-based violence and abuse, and that existing support systems, including services, may not adequately respond to the rights and needs of women and girls with disabilities, who are both givers and receivers of care and support,
PP23 Highlighting the need to invest in the care economy and to create robust, resilient and gender-responsive, disability-inclusive and age-sensitive care and support systems that address the root causes of inequalities with full respect for human rights, with a view to recognizing, valuing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care, domestic work and support, which is primarily carried out by women and girls, including women and girls with disabilities,
(b) Children with disabilities
PP20 Recognizing that children with disabilities and their families require different types of care and support services, especially those relating to education and health, and that States should provide, organize or facilitate support services that foster their well-being and enable them to realize their full potential and agency,
(c) Other marginalized groups
PP21 Deeply concerned that persons with disabilities belonging to groups that have been historically discriminated against, disadvantaged or marginalized, such as Indigenous Peoples, are disproportionately affected in their access to support arrangements and services, and noting that this also impacts migrants, internally displaced persons, refugees, asylumseekers, persons living in conflict situations, stateless persons and prisoners with disabilities,
Peer support and CRPD Guidance on deinstitutionalisation
PP18 Noting the significance of peer support as autonomous, self-directed and separate from institutional and medical frameworks, and underlining its importance for empowerment, consciousness-raising, independent living and social participation
PP25 Welcoming also the work of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and taking note with appreciation of its general comments, and noting its guidelines on deinstitutionalization, including in emergencies
Structural exclusion and discrimination
OP5. Also calls upon all States to take specific actions to counter disability-based structural exclusion and discrimination in the provision of care and support systems, including services, and to develop safeguards to prevent, monitor and act on violence against and abuse of persons with disabilities, especially women and girls with disabilities, children with disabilities and persons with intellectual disabilities, providing proper means to monitor, investigate and, as appropriate, prosecute perpetrators of crimes, provide redress for victims, adopt measures of non-repetition and ensure access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, and to promote education campaigns on violence and abuse prevention;
Call for action
OP4. Calls upon all States to take appropriate measures to establish and implement support systems that respect, protect and fulfil human rights, and to ensure community inclusion of persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others and without discrimination, applying an approach that is gender-responsive and age-sensitive, by, for example:
(a) Ensuring the meaningful involvement of persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of care and support systems;
(b) Establishing effective legal, policy, institutional and administrative frameworks, including non-medical disability assessments that focus on support requirements and additional costs, cross-sectoral coordination and built-in accountability mechanisms for community participation of persons with disabilities;
(c) Measuring support and care needs through enhanced data collection and information management, including through time-use and care and support surveys that include questions relating to the disability status of persons providing and receiving care and support and persons involved in self-care;
(d) Using various financial tools, such as tax incentives, subsidies and government-sponsored procurement policies, grants, sustainable finance, international cooperation and regulatory incentives, where appropriate, to mobilize resources and support innovative, gender-responsive, age-sensitive, disability-inclusive and human rights-based care and support systems that address the root causes of inequalities and that are not predicated on social constructs that equate disability with dependence;
(e) Developing comprehensive social protection systems, covering disabilityrelated extra costs and ensuring access to, for example, non-contributory cash-transfer schemes, to empower persons with disabilities in choosing their support services;
(f) Ensuring that “support” is included in discussions and documents relating to the care economy, reflecting disability frameworks, rights and perspectives;
(g) Investing in human rights-based support services, expanding individualized support services and strengthening community-based support networks and community resilience and sustainability;
(h) Ensuring access to support products, such as assistive technologies, including digital and new technologies, and mobility aids to strengthen support systems for persons with disabilities, while at the same time mitigating risks relating to lack of access, discrimination, privacy, data protection, safety and transparency;
(i) Ensuring access to available, affordable, accessible transport, including pointto-point transportation and paratransit options, and promoting innovations and offering concessions, subsidies and reduced fees, including for persons with disabilities and their support persons, in various transportation modes;
(j) Providing flexible funding models for support services, responding to the varied needs of individuals while respecting their autonomy and choice;
(k) Ensuring adequate, accessible and affordable housing, including through support for home acquisition, property leasing and home modifications for persons with disabilities, and infrastructure facilities that are accessible and appropriate to their needs;
(l) Raising awareness at all levels to change attitudes regarding care and support for persons with disabilities, including through adequate education and training;
(m) Cultivating and maintaining a skilled and diverse care and support workforce for quality support services, including by recognizing and developing the skills of unpaid care and support workers;
(n) Ensuring that persons with disabilities and their families, including women and girls, have access to a range of support services, information in accessible formats and education, including on how to prevent, recognize and report instances of exploitation, violence and abuse, and on how to ensure that persons with disabilities, in particular children, have a safe and supportive family environment;
Businesses
OP6. Encourages all relevant business enterprises, in particular those involved in the provision of care and support services, to conduct human rights impact assessments to ensure maximal respect for the Convention and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, with the active involvement of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations;
International cooperation to promote human rights-based support systems
OP7. Calls upon States to engage in international cooperation efforts at all levels to promote the establishment and implementation of human rights-based support systems to ensure the full inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in the community, and to encourage the mobilization of public and private resources on a sustainable basis to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities in development, and invites the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant United Nations agencies, and other donor mechanisms and partnerships, to consider ways to foster international cooperation activities in that regard, in close consultation with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations;
Development agenda
PP22 Noting the cross-cutting nature of equality and non-discrimination in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has an impact across the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and noting also in particular Goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 16, and target 5.4, to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household, as a means of establishing care and support systems that fully respect, protect and fulfil human rights, reduce poverty, promote inclusive and equitable societies for current and future generations of persons with disabilities and of ensuring that no one is left behind,
OP9. Encourages States to integrate in their reports to the high-level political forum on sustainable development the advances made with regard to the rights of persons with disabilities as reflected in laws, policies and practices developed relevant to the commitments under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to develop human rights indicators and collect data disaggregated by age, sex and disability to inform those indicators using a functional approach, such as the Washington Group short set of questions, for disaggregation;
Future themes – HRC 58th and 61st sessions
OP12. Decides that its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities will be held at its fifty-eighth session, and will focus on the rights of persons with disabilities and digital technologies and devices, including assistive technologies, and will have international sign interpretation and captioning;
OP13. Also decides to hold at its sixty-first session an interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities, which will focus on disability-inclusive infrastructure, including transport and housing, and will have international sign interpretation and captioning;
OP14. Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare its next annual thematic study on the rights of persons with disabilities on the rights of persons with disabilities and digital technologies and devices, including assistive technologies, and to prepare its subsequent study on disability-inclusive infrastructure, including transport and housing, in fifty-eighth and sixty-first sessions of the Human Rights Council
Acessibility at the UN
OP15. Encourages the task force on secretariat services and accessibility for persons with disabilities to report orally to the Human Rights Council on its work and on the progress made in the implementation of its accessibility plan;
OP16. Urges States to consider further integrating and mainstreaming the perspective and rights of persons with disabilities into the work of the Human Rights Council, such as by mandating international sign interpretation and captioning for all meetings of the Council;
OP17. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare and submit to the Human Rights Council, at its fifty-ninth session, a study defining the administrative procedures and budget required to make all Council resolutions accessible, including in easy-to-understand language, as accessibility resources and tools for persons with disabilities, in consultation with and ensuring the active engagement and participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, as well as relevant United Nations entities, including the Office of the High Commissioner, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, and other stakeholders such as civil society and representative organizations;
OP19. Requests the Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations offices to continue to work collaboratively on the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services of the United Nations system, taking into account relevant provisions of the Convention, and underlines that the Human Rights Council, including its Internet resources, should be fully accessible to persons with disabilities;
