15th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD

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The 15th session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is scheduled to take place from 14 to 16 June 2022 at the UN headquarters in New York.

Information for Accessing the UN

Passes

COSP Passes can be picked up at the UN Pass and ID office at 320 E 45th St, between 1st and 2nd Avenues.

Please note that in person registration is only open to those who have already registered online via the Indico system.

Participants must bring:

A printed or digital copy of the confirmation email that they received when their indico registration was approved.
A government-issued identification, such as a passport or driver’s license.

Registration will be open during the following times:

Monday 13 June from 1pm to 4pm
Tuesday 14 June from 8am to 1pm
Wednesday 15 June from 9am to 1pm

If you are speaking in the General Debate, beginning on Tuesday afternoon, or have a mobility disability, you will need to pick up a secondary pass. This will allow access to the GA Hall floor, reached by taking the elevators in the UN visitors lobby up to floor two, and showing the security officers both passes.

Entering the UN

All civil society organizations must enter through the UN Visitor’s Entrance on 1st Ave across from E 45th St. Please note that queues can be very long, 30 minutes or more, at times. Please arrive early! You will need to go through airport-style security and remove your laptop from its case to put it through the x-ray machine. Those using wheelchairs will be patted down by a security officer after going through the metal detectors.

COSP Main Sessions

Opening meetings on Tuesday, 14 June are located in the General Assembly Hall
Meetings on 15th and 16th of June will be in Conference Room 4

All meetings will be streamed LIVE on UN Web TV at: https://media.un.org.

Conference Room 4 can be accessed through doors directly across from the visitor’s lobby at the entrance to the UN. Those speaking and those who have mobility disabilities should continue through the visitor’s lobby, pass the tour desk, take a left, and show your paper pass to be let through the turnstiles to go down to 1B using the red elevators. Then walk straight, go down the ramp past the Vienna Café, and the entrance to Conference Room 4 will be on your Right in the back corner of that space.

Theme and sub-themes of the Conference

Overarching theme: Building disability-inclusive and participatory societies in the COVID context and beyond

Sub theme 1: Innovation and technology advancing disability rights
Sub theme 2: Economic empowerment and entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities
Sub theme 3: Participation of persons with disabilities in climate action, disaster risk reduction and resilience against natural disasters

Provisional agenda and program

Documents

General Debate

General Debate will be organized and will begin on the first day of the conference. Inscription to speakers list will be open from 23 May at 10am, and close on 6 June at 6pm (New York time). The mandatory contents for the inscription includes the full name, representation level and official title of the inscribed speaker as well as the email address of the inscription submitter, must be provided.

The speaking limit for each statement will be 3 minutes which will be strictly enforced with the speaker’s microphone be cut off automatically. Individual reasonable accommodation will be granted for persons with disabilities and needs must to be clearly indicated in the inscription and communicated in advance.

All States Parties and Signatories to the CRPD are requested to inscribe their speaker through the e-DELEGATE/e-SPEAKERS portal link.

Registered Non-Governmental Organizations(NGOs), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and United Nations entities, are requested to inscribe to the list, by submitting an online form, to register their speaker details with all requested information within the same timeframe, that is, before 6 June at 6 p.m ( New York time).

Guidance Note on the General Debate

Audio-Video Guidelines for Pre-Recorded Statements

Format of the Meetings

The COSP15 will be held as an in-person meeting. Panelists are able to participate virtually and speakers can send pre-recorded videos for the General Debate (in line with the requirements contained in the pre-recorded audio-visual guidance and upload the video message to a designated online portal following the additional instructions provided via the automatic email confirming a submission of the inscription via the e-SPEAKER).

In the general debate and roundtable discussions, speakers from the audience are required to send a copy of their intervention in MS WORD and PDF format via emailing to estatements [at] un.org no later than 3 hours before the respective meeting but preferable earlier for accessibility.

All meetings are 3-hour-sessions except the segment on Roundtable 3 which will be a 2-hour-session.

CRPD Elections

Elections for the CRPD committee members will be organized on 14 June during the COSP15.

Note of the Secretary-General (CRPD/CSP/2022/CRP.1)
General information about the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Technical Guidance

If you experience further difficulties during the Conference, please send an email to lamrabat [at] un.org with a copy to socialngo [at] un.org and enable [at] un.org.

Civil Society Participation

Registration for NGOs with ECOSOC status and NGOs Accredited to the Conference of State Parties is NOW open: The deadline is 31 May 2022. For questions related to your indico registration, please contact by email contact.indico [at] un.org and copy lamrabat [at] un.org.
Application for New NGO accreditation: The deadline is now CLOSED. For questions related to your application, please contact Mr. Amine Lamrabat at lamrabat [at] un.org.
Virtual Civil Society Forum: The Civil Society Coordination Mechanism, facilitated by the International Disability Alliance (IDA) will host a Civil Society Forum on Monday 13 June 2022. Register here. For questions about the Forum, please contact directly the secretariat of the civil society coordination mechanism, via email to Ms. Erin Hardin at ehardin [at] ida-secretariat.org.

Side Events

** Given the situation on COVID-19, most side events for the COSP15 will be held online. Please note that the application for side events in-person is only open to registered Member States **

** Please note that each side event organizer is responsible for hosting and choosing their virtual event platform.**

Side events provide an excellent opportunity for the Member States, UN entities, NHRIs, and NGOs to discuss the themes of the COSP and other critical issues related to persons with disabilities.
Side events are for COSP attendees and registered participants as well as invited registered external guests.

Draft List of Side events (as of 20 May 2022)

See side events with IDA paricipation

click here to be directed to the UN DESA webpage.

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