(Part 1) Civil Society Forum under the auspices of the 19th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN CRPD (COSP19)

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Thank you.
Good morning everyone.
Thank you for being here today.
Welcome to this civil society forum, um, that we are holding under the auspices of the 19th session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities.
My name is Talon.
I'm from the International Disability Alliance, and I'm also here representing the Civil society coordination mechanism.
This coordination mechanism, which is facilitated by the International Disability Alliance, or Ida, is a group of eight NGOs working to ensure that organizations of persons with disabilities and non-government organizations are meaningfully represented at the conference.
And for those of you who don't know the International Disability Alliance, Ida is an alliance of 14 global and regional organizations of persons with disabilities.
So it's hard to believe that the first Conference of States parties was held 19 years ago in this very room.
Since then, so much has happened for disability rights.
More countries have ratified the UN, cRPD and its optional protocol.
We've seen the adoption of the 2030 agenda and this year is particularly important because we're celebrating 20 years of the cRPD.
And that's exactly why we're all here today to come together as civil society partners, friends, 20 years on, to reflect on what's working for us, what's not working, and also to hear from you on your work, on your concrete examples on the implementation of the cRPD.
So to officially welcome you all to today's forum.
It's my pleasure to invite the president of the International Disability Alliance, Mr.
Nawar Kabara, to deliver some opening remarks.
Now, over to you.
Thank you.
Talon, distinguished delegates, colleagues from civil society, representatives of Organization of Persons with disabilities and friends.
Good morning.
It is an honor to open this civil society session of Cosp 19.
We gather at a critical moment for the Global Disability Rights Movement, a movement that has transformed lives, influenced laws and advanced the recognition of persons with disabilities as rights holders, leaders and agents of change.
Yet today we face challenges that threaten not only our progress, but also the very principles upon which the convention of the Rights of Persons was built around the world.
Armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, climate emergencies, and growing inequality are disproportionately affecting persons with disabilities.
Too often, we remain invisible in emergency responses, excluded from recovery efforts, and left behind when resources become scarce at the same time.
And it is the most dangerous.
The international human rights system itself is under pressure Multilateralism is increasingly challenged.
Development assistance is shrinking in many regions, and disability inclusion risks being treated as optional rather than essential.
We must resist and attempt to.
Frame our rights as as luxuries that can be postponed in time of crisis.
Human rights do not become less important during difficult times, they become more important.
Our movement is also confronting new and complex questions.
Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies have enormous potential to enhance inclusion, independence and participation.
However, without meaningful involvement of persons with disability in their design, governance and regulation, this technology can reinforce discrimination, deepen inequalities and create new barriers.
Another challenge is the growing gap between legal commitments and implementation.
Many states have ratified the convention, yet persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in education, employment, health care, political participation and access to justice.
The promise of inclusion remains unrealized for millions worldwide.
Civil society itself faces increasing restrictions.
Organization of personal visibility in many countries struggle with limited resources shrinking civic space and barriers to participate in decision making process.
Yet it is these organizations that have driven much of the progress achieved since the adoption of the convention.
Despite these challenges, I remain optimistic.
Our movement has repeatedly demonstrated resilience, innovation and determination.
We have changed laws, transform attitudes and built a global consensus that disability rights are human rights.
The challenges before us are significant, but so is our collective strengths.
As we begin this session, let us reaffirm our commitment to the convention, to international cooperation, and to the leadership of persons with disabilities.
Let us use this forum not only to to identify challenges, but to develop future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Noah.
Colleagues, we meet at a critical moment, one in which the rights of persons with disabilities must be actively defended and not just assumed.
Commitments exist across the UN system, but what matters now is how the UN delivers on those commitments more, more concretely, more effectively, and closer to the people that it serves.
Disability inclusion must be central to the reform agenda and not simply an afterthought.
So to help us frame our discussions on the next phase of the cRPD, I am pleased to introduce Miss Karima El Khouri director of the Sustainable Development Unit of the Executive Office of the Secretary General.
Karim is going to share some updates on the key processes and moments ahead that matter for us.
Miss Kori, can you walk us through the key developments across the UN system and how organisations of persons with disabilities and colleagues sat here in this room can best engage? Good morning and thank you.
Moderator.
Thank you for offering me this opportunity to to speak to this distinguished audience of experts, advocates, organisations of persons with disabilities and civil society from around the world.
It is a privilege to be here with you.
Um advocates, organizations, and leaders whose work is grounded in lived experience and driven by a simple, non-negotiable principle that the rights of persons with disabilities are human rights and that they are not up for negotiation.
This forum exists for a reason not to observe decisions made elsewhere, but to shape them.
That distinction matters now more than ever.
This year marks 20 years since the adoption of the convention of the Rights of Persons with disabilities, a milestone worth marking and building on two decades of legal frameworks, strengthened policies reformed and mindsets shifted, much of it driven by civil society pushing, holding to account and refusing to accept the status quo.
That progress is real, but so are the gaps.
And we've just heard millions of people with disabilities still face barriers to participation, exclusion from services and discrimination compounded by poverty, conflict and global environment that is, in many places becoming less, not more, hospitable to human rights.
This is not a moment to celebrate or grow complacent.
This is a moment to accelerate.
In 2019, the secretary general of the United Nations launched the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy, known as Undis.
A commitment to transform how the UN itself operates, not just what it advocates for externally.
When Undis was launched, the UN system met only 16% of the strategy's requirements.
Today, that figure stands at 50%.
Progress? Yes, but we are only halfway and the pace must increase.
Undis 2.0.
An upgraded, more ambitious version has been designed to do exactly that.
Close the remaining gaps, sharpen the focus on real impact, and deepen engagement with organisations of persons with disabilities and partners, not just stakeholders.
Our measure of success is not internal compliance.
It is whether programmes and operations genuinely reach everyone, leaving no one behind in practice, not just in principle.
The UN is undergoing its most significant reform in a generation.
The UN 80 initiatives marking the UN 80th anniversary is a serious attempt to build a more efficient, more coherent and more impactful organisation.
It is not just an internal management exercise.
UN 80 is a system wide reform effort, a vital opportunity to demonstrate leadership by example, by handwriting, by hand, wiring, disability inclusion into how the UN is structured and how it delivers.
The pact for the future, adopted in September 2024 is explicit on this action.
55 calls for expanding meaningful participation of civil society in intergovernmental processes, and we are taking that very seriously.
Concrete steps are clearly underway.
Quarterly UN 80 civil society town halls two have already been held.
Targeted thematic engagement across each work package of UN 80, a dedicated civil society hub, is now on a website of the UN 80, and special event on the 9th of July will be co-organized with Civil Society on the margins of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
This.
To reflect together on the future of the UN.
Today is a part of that commitment.
This is not a one way briefing.
We want your priorities, your scrutiny and your pressure reform shaped without the voices of persons with disability, will not deliver for persons with disabilities.
It is that simple.
So three points or three things this moment calls for.
First, sustained ambition.
The cRPD at 20 Undis 2.0 and UN 80 together create a rare convergence of political commitments and moments.
That window will not stay open indefinitely.
We must use it.
Second, accountability beyond words.
Commitments are only as good as the systems that track and enforce them.
Civil society is irreplaceable, irreplaceable in holding governments and the UN itself to account.
Naming gaps, documenting failures and demanding course correction.
Third, a seat at the table, not a seat by the door.
Meaningful participation means being present when priorities are set and budgets are decided, not when decisions and outcomes documents are being drafted.
We are committed to making that real within the UN.
We ask Member states to do the same.
Distinguished members of the audience.
Dear friends, the rights of persons with disabilities will not advance on their own.
We know that the advance.
The advance because people in rooms like this one refuse to let them slide.
And because those people are connected to a global movement that is unstoppable when it acts together.
We look forward to everything this forum will discuss, challenge and demand, and I thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Kareema.
There's clearly a lot ahead.
So thank you for helping us to set the scene.
So colleagues, today's forum will follow the format of a town hall meeting.
And we're going to have four substantive sessions, each focused on a specific theme.
And three of those will align with the theme of the conference and the fourth session, which is actually going to be held first, will look at the 20 year anniversary of the UN, cRPD and the wider UN processes that are contributing to our work.
So that's why we also heard from Karima.
And each session is going to be moderated by a representative from civil society.
You're going to be hearing from a broad range of speakers, all of whom have been selected through an open call.
Um, so we're going to be hearing from organisations of persons with disabilities, NGOs um, some academics, um, a couple of UN agencies as well and a couple of um governments.
So this is our platform to showcase our work, um, and connect with others that are doing similar.
Um, before we begin, we are going to play you a brief video, um, that gives some guidance for speakers.
The video does say that the session ends at two, but that's incorrect.
So please pardon us.
It's an old video.
Um we actually end at one this morning.
Um and then we're back in here at 3 p.m.
until 6 p.m..
For now we'll play the video for you.
Hello.
My name is Matthew from Malawi.
I am and I work with Inclusion International.
I would like to introduce the Civil Society forum and share some accessibility reminders to help make sure that people with intellectual disabilities can take part in the meeting.
Today The forum will be from 10 a.m.
up to 2 p.m..
We hear from many different speakers and audience can share your experiences and ideas during the discussions to make sure all people with disabilities can take part, I want to take you through some accessibility reminders.
If you are speaking, introduce yourself and what you are talking about.
Make sure your key messages are clear.
Use everyday language.
Speak slowly and do not use jargon.
Jargon is a language that we don't use in everyday conversations.
Acronyms are jargon.
Say a phoneme instead, like International Disability Alliance instead of Ida.
Remember to respect the time we have together.
Stick to the term you have been given and do not run over to the times.
Make sure any extra information you share.
Representation, videos and handouts are easy to understand.
Stories and real life examples help everyone to understand.
Speakers should keep an eye on your audience to make sure everyone is following If people look confused, slow down.
Some people may have support people.
Make sure there is time for support people to explain ideas and information.
Make sure you give the organizers of the forum feedback at the end, so that they can continue to train and to make next year's event data.
If you want more information on how to make meetings more accessible to people with intellectual disabilities, you can look at.
The listing includes speech guidelines.
The guidelines were created by the Networks of Inclusion International and Down Syndrome International.
Thank you for your attention and have a good meeting.
And if you would like to access the agenda.
We are trying to be paperless.
Um, so there is a QR code on your screen.
You can scan that and that'll take you to a Google Drive, um, which should be open, but if it's not then I'll get a notification and I'll give you access.
Um, that has copies of the agenda also in plain language and accessible formats.
Um, if you're typing it into your browser, I'll read out the website.
It's tiny url.com/19-csf.
At the end of the day, we're also going to hear from the four rapporteurs of the sessions.
And they're going to share some key takeaways from their sessions.
And with that, we'll create a civil society summary.
So you're very welcome to use that during the week.
Again, you can access that summary, um from that same QR code.
Um, we also have printed copies of the QR code here at the front.
Um, and we also want to hear from you if you're not speaking.
So this year we are going to be using a live poll, um, to help shape our asks from the day.
So the poll can be accessed by a website that's going to be read out to you.
And also a QR code will show on the screen by the moderators of your respective sessions.
And it will be 3 or 4 questions.
Most of them are going to be multiple choice.
There's also a chance for you to write free, um, just to help us shape our messages much more and to have you also engage.
So if you're not speaking, there's also a chance to engage that way.
Um, in terms of accessibility provisions.
So we have international sign all day We also have captioning provided, both provided by the International Disability Alliance.
And I just found out, uh, less than an hour ago that we're also having language interpretation.
So that's great news for those who want to use it.
It's the six UN languages.
So um, English, French, Russian Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.
So there's an ear shell in front of you that you can um, pop on and um, access your, the language that you want.
And for those that I said we were not having language interpretation, I'm really sorry.
I didn't know we were having it.
So we did.
It's a nice surprise.
Um, if you're speaking in order to help the interpreters, both language and um international sign please.
If you can send your statements, um, they don't have to be the like final version, even if you're still working on them up until you speak, but it's going to help them interpret or translate, I should say your speech as accurately as possible.
So you can send those by email to e [email protected].
That's E [email protected].
And if, um, if you forget, you can come to the front.
I'll be here all day.
Um, in the subject, if you can put the session that you're speaking on.
So session one, two, 3 or 4, and then the name of your organization.
For those of you that are speaking, please try your best to stick to your allotted time just so we can hear from as many people as possible.
Um, moderators might gently intervene if you're going over the three and a half mark.
Um, so please bear with us while we do that.
Um, for speakers you will present from where you are sitting, there is a mic button in front of you.
If you can be sat on the row as opposed to the back chairs that you can press when it's, it's going to turn green.
When it turns red, then you can speak.
Um, if you want to post on social media, the hashtag is on all the nameplates and I'll read it out.
It's hashtag CSFCRPD.
The International Disability Alliance is also launching an exciting campaign called Let's Make It Ours.
Um, and this is about, uh, um, we know that progress has been made.
Um, barriers continue to exist.
So they're launching hashtag CPD20.
Let's make it ours.
Um, as a way to bring the international community, um, and the voices of opioids together.
So I think some flyers have already been handed out.
We also have a few more.
Um, so if you're here at one and you're interested in participating, you're very welcome to come here to the front and a photo will be taken with your posters.
I think I'll stop here and I'm gonna hand you over to your first moderator, Mr.
Santosh.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
Telling, uh, good morning everybody.
As all of you know, the first session, the theme for the first session is 20 years of cRPD gains Gaps and future in UN reforms.
Friends, as we gather here today in the year 2026, it marks the 20 years of adoption of CRP, UN convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities.
This year offers an opportunity to reflect on progress made through and at the same time defining the persistent gaps in implementation.
The convention has driven important policy and social shifts.
Yet many persons with disabilities still face exclusion and discrimination and inequality in a rapidly changing world shaped by crisis and political intelligences, and in society's rapidly shifting demographic, renewed innovations and commitment.
Commitment is essential.
This year, calls for consolidation of achievements while ensuring that persons with disabilities lead efforts to shape the next phase of inclusive, right based development.
Next few years will also see a reform of the UN disability.
Inclusive development is central to the ambitions of UN reforms and UN 80 initiative, ensuring that systems become more accessible and inclusive for persons with disabilities.
Within the.
The.
The.
The inclusion of persons with disabilities within the.
Is within the efforts of UN reforms where we aim to build a more equitable and future ready, future ready multiple multilateral system that serves all IT recipients.
The civil society movement plays a vital role in defining the shifts to be seen across the UN reform UN initiatives.
Are friends.
We want to hear from you in the audience.
You are invited to access the pool poll for this particular session by scanning the QR code on the screen, or going onto the website menti.com and putting the code 16379964.
Is it right? Yes.
So friends, we have for our speakers certain guiding questions you may choose to answer.
None.
You may choose to answer one, or you may choose to answer six.
All the six questions.
It's up to you.
But, uh, within the time limit, in order to ensure that more and more people are able to express themselves and form, take part in our strategy formation for future.
So I will repeat the questions, guiding questions for you.
Question number one, what have been the most significant achievement and impact of the convention over the past 20 years? Two where do the biggest gaps in implementation and accountability remain? Three how can the convention be applied to emerging global challenges, including technology and geopolitical crisis? Four taking lessons learned from the past 20 years.
How can persons with disabilities lead and shape the next phase of the implementation of cRPD five? What is the impact of austerity Austerity measures on accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in UN UN processes? Sixth, last and sixth.
What strategy should be adopted to neutralize austerity measures on engagement of persons with disabilities in UN process, including cRPD Committee.
Now friends, what I intend to do, I will uh, I will call upon invite three speakers, distinguished speakers, colleagues from civil society and others at a time.
And in order of the call that I make one by one, each one of you will speak from your slot.
I think that's the logistic, right? So now I, I, I, I invite the distinguished delegate number one from Inclusion International, number two, Sightsavers and number three, Australian Federation of Disability Organisations.
So may I invite the first speaker, the delegate from representative from Inclusion International.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
I am very glad to be here and very glad to see so many colleagues.
My name is Sue Swenson.
I'm the president of Inclusion International and a mother.
Inclusion international is the global network of persons with intellectual disabilities and their families We are a proud founding member of the International Disability Alliance also, and we hope you all find ways into that network We were present during the cRPD negotiations.
Self-advocates, who took part in those discussions, said, quote, no one should control our lives.
Our families are a very important part of who we are.
We should be able to go to school with other children, and institutions must close.
Everyone should live in the community.
20 years later, we can recognize important progress.
More countries have reformed their laws to recognize the legal capacity of persons with intellectual disabilities.
Family based organizations are increasingly recognized alongside organizations of persons with disabilities and are able to contribute to policy discussions.
Inclusive education is widely recognized as the model that governments should implement.
International guidelines on deinstitutionalization have been developed, and resources have been dedicated to closing institutions.
These achievements matter.
They demonstrate the transformative power of the convention.
Yet the reality for millions of persons with intellectual disabilities and their families remains very far from the vision of the cRPD.
In many countries, guardianship and substitute decision making systems continue to deny people control over their own lives.
Families remain the primary source of support across the world, but too often they are undervalued, under-supported and not listened to.
Children with intellectual disabilities are still excluded from mainstream schools or denied the support they need to learn alongside their peers.
Institutions, unfortunately, remain a global reality.
In the European Union alone, at least 1.4 million persons with disabilities are still living in institutions worldwide.
We know that millions more children, adults and older persons with disabilities remain behind closed doors.
The fact that we still do not know the true scale of institutionalization is a matter of concern.
As we look to the future and with global challenges that we face, we, those of us in this room, civil society must act in solidarity.
We should raise our voices louder.
We must highlight and share the good practices, innovations, and achievements that our movement has built over the past 20 years, achievements that too often remain invisible or undervalued We must hold governments accountable and push for the promises of the cRPD to become realities in people's everyday lives.
We must strengthen our collaboration across the disability movement, recognizing that our diversity is our strength and ensuring that in advocating for our own communities, we do not diminish or overlook the voices of others.
I'm challenging you to not overlook the voices of persons with intellectual disabilities within your own movements.
We must reach beyond our own movement and work in partnership with others, with women's organizations, youth and children's movements, organizations of older persons, migrant and refugee groups, and many others.
By building the alliances, we can ensure we are included in every convention about rights, equality and social justice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, uh, for highlighting for highlighting the policy shifts, but at the same time reminding us of the challenges that we face, our colleagues who are persons with intellectual, intellectual disability face due to non-recognition of legal capacity, due to institutionalization, due to a lack of their inclusion in the, uh, in the, in the inclusive education settings.
Thank you.
Uh, can I now call upon the next speaker from Sightsavers? Thank you.
Moderator I am get rid of me, global Advocacy manager at Sightsavers, immediate past chair of cRPD Committee.
The vision of Sightsavers is a world where no one is blind from avoidable causes and where everyone can participate equally in society.
The state members all protocol observed.
Happy 20th anniversary! No doubt that significant progress has been achieved over the past decade in many areas of our lives, including advancing gender equality and dismantling patriarchal norms that have historically limited the participation and leadership of women, girls and gender minorities.
The challenge, however, the cRPD committee and partners expresses concern at the current backlash against against women and gender related rights, looking at intersectional discrimination against women and girls with disabilities.
Furthermore, the concept of gender rights has become increasingly contested in some international and development spaces, and that organizations working on human and gender rights face heightened monitoring by state and non-state actors.
This brings restriction in their activities and limitations on financial resources.
In circumstances like this, women with disabilities are disproportionately affected by these developments due to long standing structural barriers to participation and leadership.
The future as a strategy to to assist in addressing this gap and this gap in implementation of the cRPD.
The Committee in and partners are developing guidelines on identifying and addressing intersectional discrimination against women and girls with disabilities.
The present guidelines aim to provide practical guidance to all state parties and other duty bearers, including national human rights institutions, independent mechanisms, regional organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society organizations, service providers and United Nations agencies, bodies, and independent experts in the implementation of the convention with respect to intersectional discrimination against women and girls.
And this is in law and in practice.
This should be read in conjunction with the committee's general comment.
Number three on women and girls with disabilities and general comment number six on equality and non-discrimination.
It is being developed in a participatory manner.
Ladies and gentlemen, currently there is a written call for submission on the website of the cRPD committee and I will appeal to all to please make input accordingly.
So we are part of this future.
Let's use the instruction provided for us to obtain the best possible guideline to guide implementation of intersectional discrimination.
Uh.
With the cRPD.
My second appeal, ladies and gentlemen, is for all to ensure that the guidelines are used after it is launched by the cRPD committee, hopefully before the end of this year.
To ensure we achieve that, we move from lights on paper to justice for women and girls with disabilities.
Long live the Civil Society forum long link cRPD thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for highlighting for highlighting the the challenges faced by our women with disability in assuming leadership roles, and for making the appeal to.
To ensure that we all participate in the current, uh, work of cRPD Committee for developing the guidelines for women inclusion.
Now, next, may I request the distinguished delegate from AfD.
Oh.
Chair, distinguished guests, delegates and advocate colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to speak.
The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations advocates for policy change within Australia and internationally, and we very much applaud the convention, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with disabilities.
The convention has achieved many gains since its inception, but some groups continue to be left behind, such as women, girls and gender diverse people on whom this intervention will focus.
The convention article six guarantees women and girls full human rights and non-discrimination, and this article has been enacted by many states parties in legislation and policy.
But gender inequities still persists, intersecting with other inequalities and driven by negative attitudes about disability, which normalises disrespect, discrimination, abuse, control and segregation.
Change can only occur if these underlying social and economic contexts are challenged.
But what would change look like? UN actors and civil society can encourage states parties to publicly commit to gender and disability inclusion, and to transparently and regularly report progress towards implementation.
Women, girls and gender diverse people with disabilities, civil society, advocacy and UN participation can lead to more relevant and cost effective policies and more accurate monitoring of their success.
Realization of the convention's prohibition of gender and disability based violence and abuse would reduce the higher rates of violence, which women, girls and gender diverse people with disabilities endure.
Accessible physical and digital infrastructure and enabling environments.
Promoting service access rather than cost reduction would realize full educational, economic, social and political participation for all genders.
UN civil Society promotion of disaggregated gender and disability led research and data collection could ensure targeted and measurable outcomes if UN mechanisms and civil society holds states parties accountable to actively challenge gender and disability based marginalization, violence and stereotypes, while at the same time championing women, girls and gender diverse people with disabilities.
Full inclusion and leadership.
They would fully benefit from current and future gains promised by the convention and be able to celebrate.
Happy birthday Uncrpd! Let's make the next 20 years even better.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You are.
While highlighting the same issue of, uh, gender discrimination, you have highlighted a very important point that gender and disability specific disaggregated data is essential And you have talked about the accountability of state parties and UN agencies.
Now may next in the roll of distinguished speakers are the distinguished delegate from Down Syndrome.
And next from European Disability Forum and next from Women Enabled International.
So may I invite down syndrome international delegate to have the floor, please? Over here.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I'm Bridgette Sneddon from Down Syndrome International.
20 years after the adoption of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, there is much to recognize and to celebrate.
The cRPD changed how the world understands disability, moving us away from charity and medical models, and firmly towards human rights, dignity and equal participation.
Over these two decades, the convention has raised expectations and strengthened accountability.
It has supported real progress in education, employment, healthcare and community life for people with down syndrome, particularly with the right supports are in place.
It has also reinforced recognition of autonomy, legal capacity and supported decision making, but progress has not been shared equally.
For many people with intellectual disabilities, the promise of the cRPD remains only partly fulfilled.
Too often, the principle of nothing about us without us is treated as an aspiration rather than a requirement.
People with intellectual disabilities are still too often spoken about rather than listened to, visible in policy, yet missing from power.
The consequences of this exclusion are serious and ongoing.
They include segregation and education, limited access to employment barriers in healthcare, institutionalization and restricted participation in public and political life.
These are not isolated gaps.
They are systemic outcomes that reflect whose voices are prioritised and whose are not.
This reality requires us to look honestly at our own practice.
If the cRPD is to guide implementation worldwide, then its own spaces spaces must model the standards it sets.
Yet for many persons with intellectual disabilities, the Conference of State Parties remains difficult to access.
Documents are highly.
Technical discussions move quickly.
Communication, registration and navigation can be overwhelming without appropriate supports.
These are not minor procedural matters.
They are barriers to participation, and participation lies at the heart of the convention.
The good news is that we know what works Practical guidelines already exists.
Resources such as listen include respect guidelines developed by persons with intellectual disabilities themselves provide a clear and credible roadmap for inclusion.
What is missing is not knowledge but sustained commitment.
If we are serious about equality, inclusion must be built in from the outset.
That means plain language and easy read materials.
It means meeting assistance, accessible briefings and practical participation supports.
And it means ensuring that self-advocates are not only present in the room, but visible on panels included in consultations and shaping decisions.
As the late Sir Robert Martin, a fellow New Zealander, said about being on the cRPD committee, I may be the first person with an intellectual disability to serve on this committee, but I do not want to be.
The last 20 years on.
The message is clear inclusion is a right and the task before us is to make it real and move from participation and principle to participation in practice.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
For highlighting the barriers, barriers in inclusion for persons with intellectual disability, and also for suggesting the way forward.
Can I now request distinguished delegate from European Disability Forum.
President.
Thank you.
Chair, I'm speaking on behalf of the European Disability Forum as their Secretary General today.
As we're reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities.
More than ever, we need to be clear, the cRPD has really transformed the way the world understands disability.
What's more, in this convention it's been affirmed that persons with disabilities are rights holders and not, uh, an object of charity or care.
An extremely important tool has been set up for dignity, for autonomy and participation.
We now truly have a road map in order to change public policy and legislation and bring it in line with our fundamental rights in Europe and anywhere else in the world.
However, 20 years later, the promise has still not been fulfilled.
And honestly, there's still a lot to do.
Progress does exist.
That's true.
However, implementation is being carried out so slowly and it's so unequal.
In the European Union, for example, it must be said That a quarter of the population, that's around 101 European citizens have disabilities.
Nevertheless, the barriers that we continue to face every day remain there in education, in jobs, in health care and access to housing, transport, justice, sexual and reproductive rights, and political participation.
And this was laid bare during the last review of the EU by the cRPD.
We're seeing that very little progress has really been made in critical areas.
For example.
Protection against discrimination remains incomplete.
Accessibility remains a pending issue in the everyday lives of people.
When it comes to accessing services, EU funds, for example, continue to be used for institutionalization, for segregation.
The segregation of people, rather than using it to ensure that they can weaken, live in society independently.
We're particularly concerned about political participation.
Look, 400 000 people from 12 countries of the European Union cannot vote in European elections.
Among other things, because the legislation of those countries is not in line with the cRPD.
We need to be very clear also on women and girls with disabilities, 29.2% of the female population of the European Union.
That's 66 million people are women and girls with disabilities without policy in place for us, without legislation to protect us against violence, sexual abuse, sexual harassment.
We haven't even managed to achieve forced sterilization due to disabilities to be defined as a crime in the European Union.
We haven't even achieved that.
Dear colleagues, we really need to talk seriously.
We about this time.
We don't need to be celebrating.
What we need to be doing is acting.
We really need to ensure that there is enough budget in place for accessibility, for independent life inclusion participation to become a reality for people with disabilities.
We need organisations of persons with disabilities to be integrated, involved in the defining of any public policy that we put on the table.
We should not be kept outside.
Look at the last UN General Assembly of the European Forum on Disabilities.
An important resolution was adopted, a resolution that condemned.
Because your time is up, Gareth.
Gracias, president.
Thank you chair, I do apologise Gracias.
Gracias lo entiendo.
Thank you.
I understand, chairman, we need to make the rights of persons with disabilities a reality in the European Union and at the United Nations.
We really need to guarantee these.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much for highlighting the situation in EU and also for making the right calls to make things happen and to change the ground realities for the better Now, may I request distinguished delegate from Women Enabled international.
Can I also make a request to speakers? Please speak slowly because you know we are having sign language interpretation.
So let us be a little slow in speed, not in tone.
Thank you chairman.
The cRPD is a groundbreaking convention which only demonstrates that what? Nothing about us, without us in action actually needs to look like.
And we thank the ones who fought relentlessly for it.
Over the last two decades, we have been.
We have seen the cRPD and its general comments, concluding observations, statements and guidelines continue to push and strengthen the rights and recognition of persons, especially women and girls with disabilities and gender diverse people with disabilities.
For us, everything is a disability issue.
Feminists with disabilities understand that gender should also be at the center of everything, and have used the cRPD as a tool to center feminist disabled leadership within their movements, other social and human rights movements, laws and policies.
The cRPD has been an irreplaceable tool for rights, recognition and accountability at local, national and regional levels.
However, as we witness a rise in fundamentalism, threats to human rights and democracy, attacks on sexual and gender minorities, closing of civic space, surveillance and criminalization as tools of governance, a backward shift in global funding for rights and justice, genocides, conflicts and humanitarian crises.
We do need to reimagine what the next decade of the cRPD or 20 years, are going to look like.
One of the biggest challenges the cRPD has has been state commitment and implementation.
The gap between the global and the local.
The opportunity that the intersection of gender and disability has.
In the current world order we are witnessing.
This becomes more of a challenge than ever.
Women and girls with disabilities still remain the most impacted, the ones that live more violence and have no power over their sexual and reproductive rights.
The ones that even when we are dead, we don't count.
As feminists, disabled leaders.
We are at the forefront of responding to those growing threats to our rights, democracy and sustainable funding at the intersections of gender and disability.
As we move into another decade and continue to strengthen our movements and advance our rights, the cRPD becomes an extremely more valuable tool to hold power to account, to drive narrative, narrative change and collectivize.
As feminist disabled changemakers, we are crucial defenders and doers of the cRPD.
Our leadership matters.
How we demonstrate solidarity matters and most importantly, how to continue to work collectively as movements in all our diversities.
As disabled people or people with disabilities matter.
All we need is our protection and the commitment that gender is a crucial part of the present and future of the cRPD.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for highlighting again gender discrimination and non inclusion of women.
And, uh, your call for respecting gender diversity.
Now, may I have next row of distinguished speakers, the first in the row.
Next row would be humanity and inclusion The second one would be distinguished delegate from NOLA Nola.
And the third one would be distinguished delegate from World Federation of Deaf.
Now, may I request the first speaker in the row from Humanity and inclusion.
Good morning.
I am Blondin from Humanity and Inclusion, also known as Handicap International 20 years ago, the cRPD changed history and transformed people's lives.
I would like to acknowledge where the achievements of the cRPD truly comes from.
Persons with disabilities themselves and the organizations that represent them.
20 years on, their leadership remains indispensable as a representative of Humanity and Inclusion, an international NGO our role is to support and amplify this voice and leadership.
We see ourselves as allies and partners working in complementarity to advance a common objective.
The full implementation of the cRPD.
Today, I would like to focus on one essential condition for implementation.
That is resources.
This week, Humanitarian Inclusion is launching a new fact sheet on the impacts of international aid cuts on persons with disabilities and Opds, based on a global survey to Opds that we conducted in April.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the 177 Opds from around the world who contributed to this research, and some of you are in the room so thank you so much.
The findings of this survey are alarming.
At a time when humanitarian needs and inequalities are increasing, international development and humanitarian funding is experiencing one of the sharpest contractions in recent history, and persons with disabilities are paying the price as a direct consequence of aid cuts.
82% of Opds surveyed reported a high of very high negative impact on the well-being of persons with disabilities in their communities.
79% of Opds reported severe or very severe funding cuts to their own budgets, leading to the cancellation of programs and services, and 14% fear they may be forced to close permanently if current trends continue.
Aid cuts are not just financial decisions, they are decisions that affect rights, participation and lives.
People children, women are losing access to essential services and communities, losing the organizations that advocate for their rights.
However, the message we bring today is not one of resignation.
The disability rights movement has overcome enormous barriers over the past years, thanks to collective action and persistence.
Looking ahead, the Opds we surveyed made a clear call to action.
Governments and donors must protect disability inclusive funding and ensure that disability inclusion remains central to development and humanitarian action.
They must provide opds with predictable and flexible support, and they must guarantee meaningful participation.
The fact sheet can be found on hi.org in the publications section, and I'm going around with this type of leaflet if you want to have one Let this 20th anniversary be a time not only for celebration, but also of renewed commitment as an ally.
Humanitarian inclusion stands with persons with disabilities and opds in this endeavor.
Happy anniversary everyone.
Thank you Thank you very much for highlighting the most important issue of the greatest barrier of lack of resources and inclusion of disability in the development agenda.
Uh, now, may I request the distinguished delegate from Nola? Thank you, moderator Talofa, and greetings to you all for General Manager, Samoa's Advocacy Organization of Persons with disabilities welcomes the opportunity to reflect on 20 years of cRPD implementation.
One of the significant achievements of the convention for Samoa has been turning right into practical actions.
A notable example is the Social Protection Program, which provides approximately 4000 persons with disabilities with cash allowance, strengthening dignity, participation and full and and independence.
The cRPD has also reinforced.
The cRPD has also reinforced the role of opioids in shaping policies, legislations as well as development priorities.
However, significant gaps remain meaningful.
Participation has not been fully embedded across sectors.
Therefore, strong accountability and resource mobilization are needed to ensure commitments are translated into real change.
Looking ahead, investing in organizations of persons with disabilities is critical through strengthening affiliates and advocating for disability inclusion in district development priorities known Alofa is trying to help bring the convention closer to the community.
Moving ahead, the message is clear.
20 years on, cRPD success should not be measured by the number of policies adopted, but by the lives transformed and the leadership of persons with disabilities through their organizations in shaping their own future.
Thank you.
Very much for highlighting the, uh, the barriers and challenges of resources and also making a call for inclusion and for changing the real lives of persons with disabilities.
Now, may I call on the distinguished delegate from World Federation of Deaf.
Chairpersons, representatives of civil society and disability advocates, the World Federation of the deaf.
Oh, sorry.
This one.
Okay.
Trying this one There we go.
Honorable chairpersons, representatives of civil society, fellow disability advocates.
The World Federation of the deaf represents approximately 70 million deaf people through 139 national member organizations.
20 years ago, the cRPD marked a historic turning point, the first binding international instrument to recognize sign languages as full human languages and to affirm that deaf people are both disability rights holders and members of linguistic and cultural minorities.
That recognition has given us legal ground to stand in national advocacy battles across the world.
Yet the implementation gaps remain profound.
Deaf people continue to face systematic exclusion from education, employment, health services and public life not because they are deaf, but because states fail to provide accessibility in national sign languages.
The cRPD committee's concluding observations cite this failure repeatedly.
Accountability mechanisms exist on paper, but enforcement remains weak.
And today, in conflict zones from Gaza to Sudan, humanitarian responses leave deaf people behind because emergency communication is almost never provided in national sign languages.
I was just at the first ever global deaf tech conference last month At this event, deaf organizers innovators, NGOs and businesses showed us the value of deaf led AI, innovation and change.
AI and digital public services can widen access or entrench exclusion.
The key factor is for deaf people and our lived experiences to be included.
From the very start of that design process.
Technology must not replace the obligation of state parties to provide qualified sign language interpreters and direct communication in national sign languages.
The convention's principles of participation and accessibility must apply to every digital platform.
An AI system procured or mandated by the states.
I want to speak candidly about austerity cuts to civil society funding, shrinking participation slots and reduced national sign language interpreting at the UN treaty.
Body processes are not neutral administrative decisions.
Such decisions systematically exclude organizations of persons with disabilities, especially those from the global South, from the processes meant to hold states accountable.
We call on member States and the UN Secretariat to ensure deaf people are able to participate in treaty bodies in their national languages as a non-negotiable element of the cRPD accountability architecture.
For the next 20 years.
Persons with disabilities should not just be consulted.
We should lead.
We have the expertise, the lived experience and the organizations to do that.
Give us the floor, fund our participation and honor the commitments made in 2006.
Thank you.
Highlighting the the, the, the, the issue of austerity measures in UN and lack of sign language interpretation.
Uh, now, I would request before calling upon other speakers, may I request all of you and remind you that there is a poll going on and if you have not yet participated in it, please go to mint.com, menti.com, sorry, menti.com.
I spell it menti.com or QR code using code 16379964, so please participate in the poll if you have not yet done so.
Now, I continue with the distinguished speakers next in the row.
Is first in the row is Global Forum on the leadership of women with disabilities.
Second Inclusion Handicap and third zero project.
So I would first invite the.
Global Forum on the leadership of women with disabilities.
Okay, so I will go to the next because probably the delegate is not here.
Next one inclusion handicap delegate, distinguished delegate from Inclusion handicap.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends, I'm Luana Skinner from the Swiss Federation of the blind.
Today here today here as member of the Delegation of Inclusion Handicap.
Six years.
That's the time passed between the submission of my country, Switzerland's initial state report, and the adoption of the corresponding concluding observations by the cRPD committee.
This is not an exceptional anecdote.
In fact, backlogs in the UN Human Rights Treaty bodies are well documented.
These backlogs.
Um.
Uh, disconnect the reporting and policy practices in the states parties.
Studies have shown that, um.
Studies have shown that the delayed feedback as well as the effort required to provide additional information for the reporting process, limits the willingness of states as well as the use they can derive from it to seriously engage with the reporting process.
So 20 years after the adoption of the cRPD, we see ourselves confronted with serious deficits in international monitoring of this important treaty.
However, its monitoring is crucial to advance the rights of persons with disabilities, and this will even become more pronounced with the current austerity measures at the UN at the moment.
It is therefore important that we strive for the cRPD Committee to receive the resources necessary to carry out its work in a timely as well as accessible fashion.
Of course, as civil society, we cannot change this, but we can call upon the decision makers to amend the resolution 68 268 to ensure these resources are provided not only to the cRPD Common Committee, but also to all other treaty bodies, because all human rights in the end um, are one big hole that will improve the life of persons with disabilities.
Another lesson that we have learned in the 20 years of the cRPD is that we are a large global community, as demonstrated by everyone here in this room today, and our voices matter.
So I believe that with our joint advocacy, we can make the necessary improvements to the implementation happen.
And I thank you for your attention and your engagement.
Thank you very much for again, highlighting the, the, the kind of, uh, fallout due to austerity measures and your call for providing resources to cRPD committee and other treaty bodies to ensure proper monitoring of the progress made Now, I call upon the next speaker from distinguished delegates from Zero project.
Uh Good morning.
My name is Anna and I'm one of the executive directors of the Zero Project and very happy to attend this forum.
Uh, the foundation of international Cooperation in disability inclusion is clearly reflected in article 32 of the UN.
cRPD.
Article 32 recognizes that international cooperation is essential and reminds us that advancing inclusion is a shared global responsibility.
This principle is put in practice by the Zero Project.
Founded in 2008, the.
Founded in 2008, the Zero Project is a global research driven initiative dedicated to advancing the implementation of the UN cRPD.
Its mission is to identify, recognize and share innovative solutions that remove barriers for persons with disabilities.
Over the past decade, the Zero Project has built a global network of more than ten 000 experts, policymakers, business leaders, academics, persons with and without disabilities.
This growing community contributes knowledge, expertise and practical solutions, creating a unique platform for learning and collaboration across regions and sectors.
Today, at a time when many international structures and systems are facing significant challenges, the Zero Project firmly believes that direct exchange across borders, sectors and disciplines is essential.
By sharing innovations, successful practices, we can learn from one another and accelerate progress toward a more inclusive world.
For this reason, the Zero Project remains deeply committed to fostering cooperation and promoting the exchange of innovations and good practices.
This commitment is reflected in the current call for nominations 2027, which aims to identify and showcase impactful solutions in three important areas independent living, political participation and assistive technology.
By working together and learning from successful innovations worldwide, we can transform the principles of the cRPD into practical realities and ensure that persons with disabilities can participate fully and equally in all aspects of society.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
Thank you very much for highlighting the importance of international cooperation.
Uh, may I again remind those who have not participated yet in the poll? Please do so.
Uh, now, next speakers in the row are international movement of international movement.
Of Youth with disabilities.
Next International Refugee assistance Project.
And Corporacion, Ludhiana.
Real de Soto.
De Chile.
Crisol.
Sorry for any wrong pronunciation.
Uh, so this is the order.
Now, may I invite the first speaker, International Movement of Youth with disabilities.
International refugee assistance.
Next one delegate, distinguished delegate from International Refugee Assistance Project.
Thank you very much.
Uh, moderator ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, my name is Elham Youssoufian and I work with the International Refugee Assistance Project as the Director of Disability Inclusion and Accessibility.
I want to start by a quick question.
Um, how much the potential of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities have been satisfied so far in terms of ensuring protection, safety, inclusion and participation of refugees with disabilities.
I'm sure many of you have a very loud and clear no or not that much answer to that question.
And I really believe that 2026 should be the year that we break this cycle.
As we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the cRPD and 75th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention.
Um, we have never faced so much threat against, uh, human being right? To be safe, to live in safety, conflict, climate change, violence, persecution because of belief, because of race, because of gender, because of who people are can happen to everyone.
I remember that the disability movement have been always very strongly talking about disability does not discriminate.
Correct.
We all say that.
And I want to say being a refugee, being displaced does not discriminate either.
That can happen to anyone, anywhere.
No country is safe.
At some point we consider Europe and US safe, but that's no longer the case.
We see all the threats to democracy, human rights and the very basic values of equality and safety.
So I think that the disability movement should urgently take measures to address inclusion of refugees with disabilities.
All of you civil society organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, definitely there are refugees with disabilities in your respective countries.
And I really want to use this, like last 30s to ask every single of you to go back and check.
Ask yourself how much you have been doing to ensure inclusion of refugees with disabilities in your work.
And if you really believe that you should prioritize nationals to refugees or dedicate resources to support nationals and then refugees, I really want to challenge that attitude because again, being a refugee does not discriminate.
And we are talking about over around 20 million at least registered or identified refugees with disabilities around the world.
So this is not a unique or new or rare issue.
Refugees are everywhere.
People with disabilities are everywhere.
So refugees with disabilities are everywhere.
I really hope that this 20 years is a groundbreaking and a turning point, so that hopefully in the next coming years, we see further implementation of the article 11 of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, and more Inclusion and Participation for refugees with disabilities.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for highlighting very important issue of Non-inclusion of refugees with disabilities.
Now may I request the third speaker from Chile.
Good morning, colleagues and friends.
As we reflect on 20 years of the cRPD, I would like to start with a simple reminder the Global South was not only a beneficiary of the convention, but the Global South was a key factor in making it happen.
A key influencer in its content.
Today, I speak on behalf of the first deaf organization from the Global South that participated in the ad hoc committee that drafted the convention.
Our participation was possible because of international cooperation and investments in leadership development.
Those investments allowed persons with disabilities from the Global South to reach spaces where international law was being shaped.
One of the convention's greatest achievements.
Is it that it changed? Who gets to make decisions? Persons with disabilities became active participants in creating laws, policies and international standards.
Yet we should also remember that participation was not equal.
Many leaders from the Global South had to struggle to be heard and to be recognized.
Even within the international disability movement.
Access to English, travel and resources remain a privilege.
Despite these barriers, the convention carries the imprint of the Global South.
We see it in the recognition of indigenous peoples with disabilities.
In article 11, in emergencies, in article 12, on legal capacity, and on article 25 on sexual and reproductive health, and article 32 on international cooperation, among others.
20 years later, we can point to important progress.
More countries recognize sign languages.
Disability rights protections have expanded.
Some countries have eliminated guardianship systems.
The convention has also created a generation of disability leaders who now influence decision making at the national and international levels.
But the biggest gap that remains is implementation.
Meaningful participation still requires resources.
Yet too often, local organizations of persons with disabilities are consulted but not included in decisions about priorities, budgets and policies.
This concern becomes even more urgent in times of austerity.
An accessibility is not a luxury item that can be reduced when budgets become tight.
And for deaf persons, accessibility is a prerequisite for participation and exercising rights.
It is not acceptable to replace sign language interpretation with captions and call that accessibility.
It is not acceptable for the United Nations to reduce accessibility measures that disproportionately affect deaf sign language users.
Our recommendations are to protect accessibility budget cuts ensure that organizations of persons with disabilities, especially from the Global South, participate in budget decisions that affect them, strengthen international cooperation to support leadership development and participation of local disability organizations.
And finally, remember that nothing about us without us must also mean nothing.
Decided about accessibility should be without us.
Thank you very much Thank you very much for highlighting the the Non-inclusion in many cases of the leaders in decision making from Global South, and also, again, highlighting the lack of a promotion of sign language and lack of budgetary support to participate at international level from for the leaders from Global South.
Now I go to the next list of speakers, three speakers.
The first one in the list is Disabled People's International.
The next one is 100% Hindi Handy Niemiec, and next one is Finna Abi.
Uh Aerosil Aerosil.
Yeah, sorry for any mispronunciation.
Uh, so may I call the first speaker in the list from Disabled Peoples International? Yes, thank you very much, Mr.
Moderator and dear Distinguished guest and all the Civil Society forum member here I am from DVI.
My name is Abdul Sattar Dulal and, uh, DVI is an international organization.
If the disabled people and world population use DVI as their necklace, it will not be possible to end the gratitude of DeFi.
So this is the organization that is contributing in the formulation and leadership given to have the adopted.
This Uncrpd from beginning of it was discussion started in the 1998.
We maybe many of us know, I believe, that the pie has multiple recognition and its various outcomes are impacting the quality of life in today's world as it is one of the large impact of DPI, I.
So I shortly.
What I want to say for the future.
Last 20 years, lot of thousands of OPD is established Many countries.
We have the law we have the policy, we have the Many disabled people are now participating in many action in globally and in future I.
I want to say that there is a big gap is the.
As we are 1.3 billion people, little money is invested for the disabled people in this number.
For this number of people, including for the OPD, almost.
It is a zero percentage is, uh, you know, utilize.
We are also, uh, you know, in future, I think is most nation not implementing policy.
That is one of the large gap participation, including in political decision That is also, I think in future we need to address DPI.
I should prepare themselves.
OPD should prepare themselves to implement exemplary action, not just do the advocacy, not just part of the consultative, you know, process.
They should implement the program also.
And disabled people all should, you know, are we are working also for the feast as a feast.
Builders in the are in different nation and also globally.
I know many of its member is uh, you know, building feast in the globally.
They are more commitment requires from the developed nation to developing nation with proper resource allocation And I give you all thanks for giving me this opportunity.
And I also appreciate Ida and un Desa organizing this event.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Um, thank you very much for highlighting the, uh, the, the importance of resource allocation and also for highlighting other challenges and future, uh, path ahead.
Now may I request the next speaker in the row? Dear colleagues and friends, my name is Gail Vitale.
I am the spokesperson of the French Organization of Youth with disabilities.
100% hemodynamic.
We are led by and targeting youth with disabilities with any kind of disability around subjects such as graduate studies, culture, employment or sports, with the help of a peer helping network of more than 700 young persons with disabilities, we aim at addressing any type of obstacle faced by our community.
It is particularly relevant to address the experience of youth with disabilities.
Regarding the question where do the biggest gaps in implementation remain? Indeed, we were born or grew up during the implementation of the cRPD.
As some persons on dynamic.
We asked the feedback of young persons with disabilities and I am going to present it to you.
Around 70% of young persons with disabilities think that French society is not inclusive enough.
They face difficulties in every aspect of their life.
Two thirds of them have at least once renounced their rights.
Half of them find graduate studies and accessible and 40% of them do not have enough resources to cover their basic needs.
They do not ask for much.
Their priorities are accessible work, education for all and inclusivity in the social life.
These findings show that 20 years after the adoption of the cRPD, many of the rights recognized by the convention remain out of reach for young persons with disabilities.
How can we change this as a community? While 6 in 10 of our respondents think that the society does not allow for the civic participation of persons with disabilities, taking lessons learned from the past 20 years and the experience of the youth.
How can persons with disabilities lead and shape the next phase of the implementation of the cRPD? Well, the first step is consultation, just like we did, and we would be happy to share our methodology with you.
Consulting the community is the first, but not the only key towards meaningful participation and decision making based on Co-construction Now, Co-construction means that the society needs to work with persons with disabilities, which itself relies on the deconstruction of several biases to support this change.
100% hemodynamic is designing a national mechanism for awareness raising based on a three year consultative process including opd's, policymakers and researchers, this initiative takes the form of a one day training program based on the general principles of the cRPD, which aims at overcoming stereotypes and making inclusivity a key component of civic life.
For the next 20 years of cRPD implementation, young persons with disabilities must be recognized as partners and decision makers.
I hope these ideas will be useful for your project and advocacy.
Dear colleagues, feel free to come and ask me any question and 100% dynamic will be present at two side events on youth with disabilities, one on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
at the Unicef House, and one on Wednesday at 445 online.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much for highlighting the implementation gaps from the youth perspective, and also for suggesting the way forward.
Now the last speaker in the row, which I have already announced.
Good morning everyone.
Thank you for the opportunity.
My name is Vanderson.
I am the first secretary of the National Federation of Papayas of Brazil a social movement that works every day with people with disabilities and their family.
Today, in the celebration of the convention, I would like to share a positive experience about regarding the right indigenous persons with disability.
Many indigenous persons with disabilities face barriers because of their disability, poverty, geographic isolation and their indigenous identity.
It is exclusion inside another exclusion.
Last year we decided to take action.
We organized one of the first seminars in Brazil dedicated to indigenous persons with disability held inside the indigenous village.
We brought together indigenous leaders, families, professional research and social organization to listen, learn and build the solution together.
Now, in my state, spirit sent the API of Aracruz, established a permanent and culturally respectful program with indigenous community serving more than 90 persons with disabilities.
We know this only in the beginning.
The challenge is global, but this invisibility cannot continue.
If you want to know more, please contact us.
Thank you very much.
Much for highlighting a your experience with regard to positive experience with regard to inclusion of indigenous persons Now, next in the row of three speakers, I invite distinguished delegate from rhetoric.
Next from rights of people.
Disability for a.
Disability people forum from Uganda.
And the last one.
Lejeune Foundation.
Sorry for any wrong pronunciation.
Uh.
Now I invite the first speaker in the row.
From Korea.
I'm here.
Yeah.
Um, good morning everyone.
My name is Yong Yeon Kim and also known as an.
I'm a journalist and activist from South Korea, working with the Research Institute of the Differently Abled Persons Rights in Korea.
Rhetoric.
As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the cRPD, many of us reflecting on the progress we have achieved.
But today I'd like to raise a concern.
While the world is so excited about the future promised by AI, who is paying attention to the new forms of discrimination that AI may create, AI is already influencing employment, education, health care and welfare services.
In South Korea, welfare centers have even begun introducing AI powered CCTV systems designed to predict and prevent so-called challenging behaviors among autistic persons.
However persons with disabilities are rarely included in decisions about how these systems are designed and governed.
Recently I spoke with a company developing AI hiring systems in Korea.
They told me they do not have disability data, and they did not see this as discrimination.
That is exactly the problem.
In the age of AI, discrimination does not always come from bad intentions.
It can come from missing data in accessible design and also from systems built without us.
And when discrimination happens, responsibility becomes even more unclear.
Who is responsible? The developer, the company, the data provider, the algorithm itself.
While everyone points to someone else persons with disabilities bear the consequences.
And this is not a hypothetical concern.
Over the past year, our institute conducted research and disability AI in Korea, including interviews with persons with disabilities from diverse groups.
And I'm so happy to be here to share this report.
And in the research, many welcomed AI as a tool for accessibility and independence, but they also shared concerns that sounded very familiar to the disability movement, like exclusion from decision making, inaccessible systems and lack of accountability and so on.
So this is not simply a technology issue.
I would say it is a human rights issue.
20 years ago, we fought against physical barriers and social exclusion.
Today we face a new challenge invisible barriers, hidden inside algorithms, data sets, and digital systems.
If we remain silent, the clock of rights can move backwards.
The next 20 years of cRPD implementation must include AI governance.
We cannot allow governments and technology companies to discuss AI without us.
So my message today is simple let us not wait until new forms of discrimination become normalized.
As civil society, we must work together to ensure that AI services serves humanity, not the other way around.
So let's stand here together and raise voices all together.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for highlighting a very important issue.
And I think this is the greatest challenge that we have started facing and will face it more intensely in future, uh, because of AI and it's designing without our inclusion Now, may I call upon the next speaker in the row? Uh, from Uganda.
They are not here.
The last one Jaron Vision Foundation.
Thank you chair.
Um, so thank you, chair, distinguished delegates and guests.
Uh, my name is I am speaking today on behalf of the Jerome Foundation which has worked for over 30 years alongside persons with intellectual disabilities and their families to defend their dignity, access to care and equal rights.
20 years after the adoption of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, we can clearly say the convention has changed the paradigm.
Thank God, disability is no longer seen only through the lens of assistance, but increasingly through the through rights, participation and inclusion.
This is a major gain of the past two decades, but important gaps remain in many contexts.
Persons with disabilities still face unequal access to healthcare, early intervention and scientific progress.
Support systems are uneven, and too often families are left without adequate guidance or resources.
Women with disabilities remain at particular risk of violence and discrimination, and aging persons with disabilities are still insufficiently considered in public policies.
Looking ahead, we must also recognize that new technological and scientific developments are reshaping the landscape.
I would like to reiterate a part of what my friend from Korea has mentioned artificial intelligence, genetic medicine, and prenatal diagnosis raise profound ethical questions.
The future of inclusion will depend on our ability to ensure that innovation strengthens strengthens equality, rather than creating new forms of exclusion or selection.
In this context, a reforming United Nations system has a crucial role to play, ensuring coherence between human rights principles, scientific progress and real life protection for the most vulnerable.
Our message is simple the next phase of the cRPD implementation must be more concrete, more protective, and more attentive to those who are still too often left behind.
Inclusion must be lived, not only proclaimed.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for giving that powerful message of inclusion must be lived and not just proclaimed.
On this note, we complete the list of speakers.
Before I conclude this session, may I invite Talon? Request Talon to announce the results of the poll.
Thank you Santosh.
So we had around 78 people replying, which is not bad, but let's try and do better in the next session.
Um, so the key headliners um were that participation and accountability.
They are standing out as the clearest um UN reform priorities, um, suggesting that the legitimacy around the processes for our participation matter just as much as what actually comes out Um, the second thing was representation in global decisions are still seen as weak.
Um, so more disability leadership will be required, um to, uh, towards the UN processes before we can really, um, grow our trust in those.
Um and then finally, the poll also showed some, um, implementation gaps.
There was a question in there about where do you think um, the cRPD is lacking in terms of implementation and the gaps, the gap clusters I should say were around um education, employment, violence, um, implying that cRPD has um, has seen some gains, but they have been um, uneven in our daily lives.
So those are the summaries.
The next session will have another poll for you to complete.
So get ready for that.
Um, and you can, uh, fill it out again.
Um, and if you have any questions, you can come find us, but we hope to use these results in our summary from the day.
Santosh, back to you.
Thank you.
Telling so friends, I would first like before concluding, I would like to thank all the distinguished speakers and of course the audience, because your patience and your endurance with my my inability to live up to your expectations, possibly, possibly.
Uh, now, friends, there are three, four clear messages from the interventions made while we all celebrate the progress made as a result of adoption of cRPD 20 years ago in shifting the policy focus.
For inclusion and ensuring participation, we still face exclusion and discrimination due to various policy gaps, implementation.
Certain gaps were highlighted which are from real lived experiences which include non-recognition of legal capacity of intellectually disabled.
Institutionalization, lack of inclusion of deaf persons in inclusive education, employment non-recognition and non promotion of sign language interpretation as a as a as a as a legal requirement.
Lack of promotion of leadership from global South.
The impact of austerity measures on the representation and leadership of persons with disabilities and engagement, and most importantly, the adverse impact on the work of cRPD Committee and other treaty bodies as a result of austerity measures.
And also the challenges in in not including the requirement and accessibility, accessibility requirements and other issues pertaining to persons with disabilities, while shifting to artificial intelligence, importance of international cooperation and other and lack of gender, uh, gender sensitivity and inclusion in our journey towards implementation of cRPD are some of the important, uh, employment implementation gaps and policy gaps which were, which were pointed out.
A colleague, uh, from Switzerland pointed out the importance or the, the, the, the important point of, uh, the adverse impact of cRPD on cRPD committee due to the lack of, uh, more opportunities for it to monitor and consider the reports submitted by countries, which definitely points out to towards the lack of, uh, a lack of effectiveness of monitoring mechanism.
So these are few points, but the message is loud and clear.
And the message is that civil society.
Will, with more vigor and commitment, continue to ensure that what we gained by adoption of UN cRPD 20 years ago, we will not let these gains go out of our hand.
We will continue to build on those gains and make real changes in the lives of persons with disabilities by facing boldly the challenges that are that we face today.
And I think if we show solidarity and remain united, we will achieve what we want and we will succeed in making real changes in our lives across the globe.
Thank you very much.
And if you want to add, there's no brakes if you want to invite the moderator, okay.
There's no barrier.
Okay.
So I hand over to talent to for further proceedings.
Thank you very much.
If I could.
Hello.
Sorry if I could ask everyone to return to their seats.
It's not turned.
You might want to use.
The gavel.
If I could ask everyone to return to their seats, please.
May I have your attention, please? No.
Good afternoon everyone.
We are just starting now.
The second session.
Colleagues, please take your seats.
We're about to start.
Please take your seats.
We're about to start.
Colleagues, please take your seats.
We're about to start.
Please, everyone, take your seats.
Everyone, please take your seats.
We're about to start.
Everyone, please take your seats.
We're about to start.
Get your email address from.
Okay, great.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to session two of Civil Society Forum.
My name is Moshe Hovsepyan and I'm the president of Disability Rights Agenda NGO an organization of persons with disabilities based in Armenia.
And I'm also the candidate of Armenia to the cRPD committee.
Um, it's a pleasure to moderate this session on creating a world free from exploitation, violence and abuse for all persons with disabilities.
Uh, so article 16 of the convention recognizes the right of persons with disabilities to be free from all forms of exploitation, violence, and abuse.
Yet 20 years after the adoption of the convention, violence against persons with disabilities remains a profound challenge and persistent human rights challenge.
Uh.
Despite the important legal and advocacy efforts, persons with disabilities continue to face heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse across homes, schools, workplaces, health systems, humanitarian settings, places of detention, and community environments.
For many, those risks are compounded by intersecting forms of discrimination related to gender, age, ethnicity, indigenous identity, sexual orientation, migration or refugee status, poverty, homelessness, and other forms of social inclusion.
At the same time, the nature of context of violence are evolving as societies become increasingly digital.
Persons with disabilities exposed to online harassment technology facilitated abuse and exclusion from digital protection and reporting mechanisms, armed conflicts, genocide, humanitarian crisis and forced displacement further heightened risk.
While too often excluding persons with disabilities from prevention, preparedness, protection, response, recovery and peace building efforts.
As we begin this discussion, I invite us to consider not only how violence manifests today, but also how changing technologies, global crisis, and emerging challenges are reshaping both risks and responses.
Uh, as mentioned, we also want to hear from you in the audience.
Uh, you are invited to access to poll for a particular session by scanning the QR code on the screen, or just going on to menti.com and putting the code, which is 29741339.
I repeat 29741339.
Um, I hope we will see the QR code later on the screen.
Yeah.
So before we start, a quick apology in advance, there are some, uh, Spanish names on today's list.
And while I practiced and did my best, I still, uh, may mispronounce some of them.
So thank you for understanding.
Um, I would like to invite our first three speakers.
First is Queensland advocacy for inclusion.
Uh, second is center for Human Rights, uh, of users and survivors of psychiatry.
And the third is the Latin American network of non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities and their families So Queensland advocacy for inclusion.
The floor is yours.
Thank you.
Yes.
Um, my name is Alex Lad.
My pronouns are he him.
Uh, I am wearing glasses, a blue suit and have brown hair.
I'm the secretary of Queensland Advocacy for inclusion, an independent, not for profit advocacy organization and community legal center for people with disability.
I'm also a lawyer at Caxton Community Legal Centre, a human rights advocate, and have lived with vision impairments since birth.
Across the first 20 years of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities in Australia and other states, parties are owing to increased disability led leadership and major national inquiries.
We have witnessed an incremental shift towards improved community attitudes and reduced system barriers.
This has underscored the vital importance of accessibility, human rights, inclusion, equity and fairness.
However, there remains much scope for further progress and improvement.
Uh.
To reduce violence and abuse being experienced by our community.
One such area relates to inadequate responses both locally and globally, to prohibiting solitary confinement.
However, described in detention centres or prisons the significantly harmful impacts of people with disability, especially children and indigenous persons who are subjected to isolation and forms of solitary confinement, must receive greater attention globally.
For example, in Queensland, Australia, there continues to be rising levels of youth detention and disproportionately high rates of persons with disabilities entering the criminal justice system.
Following on from a national inquiry into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability, only two Australian states or territories agreed to in full to implement a prohibition on such practices, and Queensland's response has been questioned following inspections at centres more locally in the state of New York.
A recent major legislative development occurred in the form of the Halt Solitary Confinement Act, which has, uh, has a clear objective of limiting solitary confinement but has seen low rates of successful implementation and a class action led by a blind man who was subjected to prolonged isolation is currently ongoing.
Even in some jurisdictions where this practice is prohibited as a form of punishment, it must be noted that it has been understood to act as as an additional punishment, regardless of intent, especially for people living with cognitive impairment or mental health conditions, and greatly impacts childhood development.
This issue must also be considered in accordance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of prisoners or the Nelson Mandela Rules, which mandates 122 standards for fundamental human dignity within custodial settings.
Further, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recently noted grave concerns for the overrepresentation of indigenous children subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and the associated higher rates of violence and abuse, such as self-harm.
Moreover, despite domestic and international recommendations, Australia has still not enacted a federal Human Rights Act, which practically means it is failing to fulfill its obligations under the convention.
Within our domestic legal framework, a rights focused, modern approach, led and designed by persons with disabilities from diverse backgrounds, is vital to reduce rates of violence and abuse in the criminal justice system and within other systems across all states parties, and must be considered alongside their obligations under article 16.
As noted, as well as article 15 of the convention relating to freedom from Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Although state parties have variously conducted reviews and inquiries into this issue, as noted, article 33 requires meaningful monitoring of the cRPD and I urge civil society to call on their governments to do more more to meaningfully consider whether implementation has truly been achieved in relation to solitary confinement.
Due to the clear and significant health and human rights impacts it causes to persons with disability.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Um, may I remind speakers to keep their remarks within three minute limit? And now I give the floor to the center for Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry.
Please go ahead.
Okay.
I don't see that they are in the room at the moment, so we'll come back to them later and move out to next speaker, which is the Latin American network of non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities and their families Please go ahead.
Hello.
Intervene in representation.
I'm speaking on behalf of the Latin American network that includes organizations of persons with disabilities and their families.
On the 20th anniversary of the convention, why are so many millions of persons with disabilities still facing forms of violence, exploitation and abuse that have been documented, called out and reiterated repeatedly two states, and we are still not seeing meaningful transformations in their lives.
Women with disabilities still face violence in the home, in institutions, in health services, and in community spaces.
Persons with intellectual and ecosocial disabilities and multiple disabilities continue to face obstacles in accessing justice and obtaining effective protection.
Children and adolescents remain one of the groups that is most invisible, and we know that the prevention of violence begins in childhood when we ensure inclusion, support and opportunities from the very first years of life.
I'd like to add a dimension that our region faces significantly in that we don't often discuss in this space.
The fact is, in Latin America, we must recognize forms of violence linked to the land.
People living in the social conditions they live in, processes of forced displacement, unequal urbanization and gentrification are leading to profound gaps in community support networks, which are essential for so many persons with disabilities.
When a person is displaced from their communities, they do not only lose their home, they also lose their care networks, their daily support, their access to services, and their environment of safety and security.
For so many people with disabilities, including those with high levels of support needs, these displacements significantly increase the risk of isolation, abandonment and violence in some contexts.
In our region, the illegal economies and dynamics of territorial violence also generate unsafe environments that have a disproportionate impact on persons with disabilities, limiting their mobility and their participation.
This is why preventing violence should not only be conceived from the point of view of social protection systems and justice, we must also consider the right to not be displaced in your community, to live in a safe environment with accessible and stable services.
I'd like to finish with some thoughts from Latin America and the Caribbean 20 years ago, Mexico played a key role in driving forward the process that originated in the convention, recognizing that global changes can begin in our region, the convention does not need new interpretations.
What it needs is commitments and consequences when the commitments are not fulfilled.
So no person with disability has to live in fear that are not, and that they're not being made invisible.
Today, we must ensure that we blaze a trail towards a world that recognizes all persons of disability and ensures that they live free of violence, and that they have real guarantees for participation and rights, that persons with disabilities can also age with dignity, autonomy with adequate support and full inclusion in their communities that children and youth are able to grow up with real opportunities for participation and real, um, perspectives for a full life that no person with a disability, um, has to live in fear that they are not invisibilized due to a lack of support and care systems.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to our speakers.
We have already heard important perspective on rights protection and accountability, especially on the rights of children and indigenous persons with disabilities.
So let us continue by hearing from Transforming Communities for inclusion, TCI Global Inclusion Canada and Red de Mujeres indigena Afro descendants con discapacidad de RLC.
So TCI global.
Go ahead please.
Is this on? Oh, yes.
Uh, my name is Chris Henson.
I'm speaking on behalf of Transforming Communities for inclusion.
Although I work in peer support, I now live in the US.
Uh, but I was a part of the New Zealand delegation that helped draft the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities.
Kia ora koutou katoa.
Persons with psychosocial disabilities remain one of the most exploited and marginalized groups of persons with disabilities worldwide.
They even at times experience this exclusion and marginalization from other disability organizations.
Violence, abuse and coercion towards persons with psychosocial disabilities are still inherently endorsed in many societies.
This occurs not only within communities, but also within mental health and healthcare systems that claim to support us.
TCI is concerned about the vulnerability and exploitation of persons with psychosocial disabilities, as well as those with marginalized identities, particularly youth and those of women and girls, on the basis of sex and or gender diversity.
20 years after the convention was adopted, carceral and coercive practices continue to be misnamed as treatment or care, even when they involve force, restraint, seclusion, involuntary detention, or the removal of legal capacity.
We need to work towards abolishing these practices and name them for what they are violations of human rights, which disconnect people from their communities, undermine dignity and perpetuate exclusion.
The challenge before us is not simply to reform existing systems, it is to create and resource meaningful alternatives, and then to stop calling them alternatives.
We know what works.
Peer support connects people through mutual relationships and shared experience.
Community based crisis options provide support without hospitals or coercion.
Strong advocacy helps people access housing, healthcare, education, employment, transport, justice, and community life.
Families and communities can be supported to build connection rather than isolation.
Most importantly, we must stop seeing psychosocial disability solely as a healthcare issue.
It is also a community issue, a family issue a human rights issue and a social inclusion issue.
We call on states parties to invest in grassroots, community led supports, including peer support and community development initiatives, initiatives to replace coercive responses with rights based approaches to create research, to further develop these practices, and to ensure that people with psychosocial disabilities are recognized not as problems to be managed, but as valued citizens with the right to belong, to participate to flourish, and to contribute to the colourful society that we know and love.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'd now like to turn to Inclusion Canada.
The floor is yours.
Wish delegates.
My name is Moira Wilson, president of Inclusion Canada, a federation of people with an intellectual disability and the families who stand with them.
I am one of those families.
When my son Michael was small, a physician advised us that although Michael had an intellectual disability, that a cap should never be placed on his potential to learn and thrive, he has spent his life learning and thriving.
20 years into this convention, I have learned that my country views Michael very differently.
His potential is dismissed not overtly, not on paper, in its laws and its budgets.
A quiet accounting of what a life with a disability is allowed to cost and what it is allowed to be worth.
It was not always this way, and it need not be.
40 years ago, three families in New Brunswick went to court so their children could sit in a regular classroom, and the law was changed to let them.
New Brunswick became a place where the world came to study.
Yet today, across most of Canada, a child with a disability can still be sent home, taught an hour a day, or seated apart from everyone else.
And the devaluation keeps growing.
This year, Alberta moved to cut the incomes of tens of thousands of people with disabilities and institutions we were told were closing are quietly reopening under kinder names.
But one reality is darker than the rest when a Canadian without a disability is in crisis, my country fights to keep them alive.
When my son is in that crisis, the law now offers to end his life.
We are the only people the state will help to die when death is not otherwise coming.
More than one Canadian with a disability dies this way every day.
This is the line where my country stops weighing what a life costs and simply crosses it out.
Its own treaty body, reviewed this last year, said it was extremely concerned and told Canada to repeal the law.
Canada has not.
We are not waiting for permission.
Inclusion Canada is in court arguing this betrays the Equality Canada promised in this very hall.
So delegates hold my country to the promise it signed and to every family watching at home.
No life should ever be capped.
Michael taught me that Canada is about to learn it too.
Thank you.
Thank you for your strong remarks.
We previously skipped the center for Human Rights and of survivors and users and survivors of psychiatry.
As they were not in the room.
I now invite them to make their intervention.
Please.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
While psychiatric committal or chemical restraint can be used against any marginalized population, the core of these actions is disability based discrimination.
The system of psychiatric diagnosis and arbitrary approach to classifying some personality traits, states of consciousness or behavior as abnormal provides wide discretion to psychiatrists to select persons for arbitrary detention and torture, which is simultaneously said to be in the person's own best interest and in the interest of society to segregate and confine such persons.
Neuroleptics are the primary class of drugs administered against a person's will in psychiatry, both openly as a chemical restraint and more insidiously, characterized as a beneficial medical treatment.
Neuroleptics are powerful central nervous system depressants that function as a chemical straitjacket suppress the person's will and feelings, and create a sense of inner turmoil, accompanied by distressing movements.
These effects can become permanent even after the drug is stopped.
Electroshock of the brain is similarly mischaracterized as a medical treatment.
It permanently damages the brain, often destroying chunks of a person's memory and diminishing their creativity and cognitive function.
Both neuroleptic drugs and electric shocks to any part of the body were recognized as torture by a UN special rapporteur in 1986, but continue to be used routinely against the will of persons with psychosocial disabilities.
Prevention begins with removing all legal authorizations for involuntary committal and compulsory treatment, and enforcing a clear prohibition against any mental health interventions without the prior affirmative expression of free and informed consent by the person concerned, there can be no exceptions within the framework of medical emergency or best interpretation, as these interventions are intrusive, irreversible and discriminatory, warranting the designation of torture support options for people experiencing life crisis, distress or unusual perceptions must be made available outside a medical framework, including decision making support, support to heal from trauma and support to meet practical needs Lastly, survivors are owed systemic, collective and individual reparations to create the conditions for social inclusion, transformative justice and personal healing.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm pleased to invite Red de mujeres indigena e afro descendientes con discapacidad de I s.
The floor is yours.
Muchas gracias.
Thank you.
Very much, chairman.
I'm speaking on behalf of the network of Indigenous and Afro descendant women with disabilities.
But I'm also talking from our territories, from the communities facing multiple crises.
These are not abstract concepts.
They are realities that we experience every day for our peoples.
Climate change is no longer just a future threat.
It is a reality that is altering our agricultural cycles, reducing water, degrading ecosystems, having an impact on food production and imperiling ancestral knowledge that have sustained our collective survival.
However, these impacts do not affect all people equally.
For indigenous women with disabilities, the consequences are more deep running and harsher because we live at the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination.
Because we're women, indigenous and living with a disability.
And often we face conditions of poverty and exclusion when water is scarce, when food is lacking, when basic services disappear, or when families are forced to move due to environmental causes.
We also see an increase in the risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, forced dependence, isolation, a lack of accessibility, barriers in accessing justice and exclusion from these decision making spaces place us in a situation of heightened vulnerability in many areas.
Indigenous women with disabilities face violence within our homes.
Institutional violence, abandonment, economic exploitation and exclusion from humanitarian and climate responses.
Violence does not only come from individual actions, it also happens when public policies ignore our realities and when the decisions that are made on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development are made without us.
However, today we don't only need to be recognized as women that face inequalities.
We also want to be recognized as leaders.
Indigenous women with disabilities are the custodians of our territories, of our biodiversity.
We participate in collecting native seeds and conserving medicinal plants in reforestation processes, and in replenishing water sources and handing down traditional knowledge to future generations Our contributions are not symbolic ones.
We're talking about a concrete contribution to the reality of our communities, to food security, to climate adaptation, and the sustainability of our peoples.
And that's why, from the network of Indigenous and Afro descendant women with disabilities, we're launching an urgent appeal to states, to international organizations, and to finance mechanisms so that we can make headway with better, more ambitious commitments, first of all, including disability in a cross-cutting manner, gender equality and the rights of persons of disabilities in all climate and environmental policies, and also policies on biodiversity, and also including specific measures to prevent violence, exploitation and abuse.
Second, directly financing initiatives led by Indigenous and Afro descendant women with disabilities.
For our communities.
Recognizing the value of.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Um, so.
I'm very sorry for interrupting interrupting before we continue.
Quick note on time management, we have approximately 30 minutes remaining and the number, uh, speakers still on the list, so I can't ask everyone to keep their intervention as concise as possible.
So to ensure everyone has an opportunity to speak, I will just say, uh, please begin to wrap up when you reach out to minutes, 45 seconds.
And I apologize for being strict on time, but I hope you will understand that, uh, this is interest of fairness to all speakers.
Uh, I now invite to, uh, Indonesia Revolution and education for Social inclusion.
Second on the list is Federacio Nacional das apiece and por igual mass Foundation, uh, Indonesia Revolution and education for Social inclusion.
Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Uh, thank you very much.
Uh, my name is agus and I'm from Indonesia.
Um, I speak today as a youth with psychosocial disabilities and as part of global movement demanding freedom, dignity and justice.
And I'm glad that I'm not being chained at the moment And I'm quite free.
Around the world, people with psychosocial disability are forcibly institutionalized, medicated against their will, restrained and deprived of liberty because of psychiatric diagnosis and the assumption of, incapable of or incapacity.
This practice are often described as treatment rehabilitations under the name of care and protections and best interests.
Thousands of us are still in the cage, and they are chained today.
But too often the violence experienced by persons with psychosocial disabilities is invisible because it has been legalized, medicalized, and normalized.
To confront this issue, we must ending the culture of cynicism.
Cynism is the prejudice that assume persons with psychosocial disabilities is irrational, dangerous, incompetent, or incapable of determining our own lives.
It is cynicism that makes all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse appear reasonable as ordinary practice that often hide under the care and rehabilitation agenda and under the beautiful words of protection, mental health and care saves our laws, our culture, our traditions.
It is appear in the UN document and in the evening.
It is in your mind, in the spirit of creating a world free from exploitation, violence and abuse for all persons with disabilities, including youth, gender diverse with psychosocial disabilities.
We need to ask.
Who is the violence, abuse and exploitation coming from? 20 years after cRPD to.
Many governments continue to fund institutions instead of freedom to fund guardianship instead of autonomy and care.
Instead of support for youth gender diverse persons with disability These harms are compounded by ableism, cynicism, ageism, poverty and exclusion.
Young people are targeted as a burden Our distress is medicalized.
Our transition to adulthood is intercepted by guardianships, our right to shape our own future is stripped away before even begin, exposing.
us to even greater risks.
In the spirit of this beautiful creating a world of freedom, violence, exploitation, abuse, I would like to ask a question simply to end it is whether we are willing to stop fearing psychosocial disability, or is there any other agenda? Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is from Federacion Nacional das PiS.
The floor is yours.
Hi.
My name is Fabiana Lisboa.
I'm a psychologist, autism specialist and coordinator of social projects for Brazil, working with people with intellectual disability, multiple disabilities and autism.
Today, I stand here not only as a professional but as someone who has spent more than 20 years listening to families, support vulnerable communities and twins, the silent violence that people with disabilities still face every single day.
In Brazil, people with disabilities are often exposed to neglect, abuse, exclusion and violence.
Women and girls with disabilities are among the most vulnerable groups in our society.
Means of physical, emotional, sexual and institutional abuse, often citing their own homes, schools or care spaces.
And in many cases they are invisible to public policy, invisible to protection system and invisible even to society itself.
When talk about autism, autism, gill and human.
It becomes even deeper.
Many are diagnosed late or never diagnosed at all.
The suffering is mis understood, the voices are silenced, and the vulnerable increase a lot.
We cannot build inclusive world While so many humans with disabilities continue to live with that protest, dignity or access to their fundamental rights.
This is why the world delivered by Brazil is so important across the country.
And by filing deadline for inclusion, protection, access to health care, education, social participation and human dignity of people with disabilities and their families But this filing cannot belong only to institutions.
It must be a global commitment, creating a better world, free from violence and abuse means listening to people with disabilities as friends.
Protection policy, investing in early support, promoting accessible and suffering that no person is left behind because of the of disability.
Inclusion is not inclusive justice protection is nor favor are a hit on human rights.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Turning now to por igual mas Foundation.
The floor is yours.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Ana Argento Nasar from Argentina.
In this year in which we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the convention, we have outlined an indispensable roadmap in health education and employment, among other sectors.
Today, we are here to discuss how to eradicate violence and abuse.
But we must understand that violence is not just physical harm or exploitation.
Violence is also the systemic denial of the full humanity of persons with disability.
It is fragmenting the individual and deciding which parts of their lives deserve to be lived and which do not.
Those of us coming from NGOs are here to amplify grassroots demands at the Mass Foundation and the Latin American Network for Interreligious Cooperation on disability related.
We have been working side by side with persons with diverse disabilities for over 12 years.
Throughout this journey, we have learned that survivor centered support systems fail if they only address the physical body and neglect belonging.
And this is where the international community leaves an immense void.
Ignoring a fundamental dimension of human development, comprehensive well-being from a profound anthropological perspective, I'm referring to the right to the development of transcendent life, spirituality and faith.
For millions of people, their spiritual communities are the greatest network of support and resilience.
However, even within those spaces, people with disability face systemic exclusion due to lack of accessibility.
We must understand that within human diversity, there is also a spiritual diversity.
Removing barriers allow us spirituality.
In the words of Fernanda, a blind woman of faith, to transform vulnerability into resilience.
Developing these dimensions requires guaranteeing genuine accessibility in places of worship, sign language interpreters, braille, and the provision of personal assistance, among others, so that every individual can participate with full autonomy.
But for this not be a mere aspiration, we need a method with the core model by mass, we propose moving from rhetorical inclusion to policies of legitimate acknowledgment.
This demands translating laws into effective policies with allocated budgets, real impact measurement, data transparency and sustainability through participatory governance.
Yes, we will not eradicate abuse if we continue to amputate dimensions of human life through well-being and legitimate acknowledgement.
Embrace the whole person.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Um, so to ensure everyone has an opportunity to speak, I kindly ask all remaining speakers to conclude their intervention within two minutes.
Um, thank you to all three speakers as we continue to invite us to reflect on how experiences differ across regions and communities.
While many of the underlying challenges remain the same.
Our next speakers are Randall Professional Association RPA.
Second is Ari Korea, Rehabilitation International Korea, and third is Papua New Guinea Association of persons affected by Hansen's Disease.
So Randall.
Professional Association, please.
I guess they are not in the room.
So, uh, next speaker is Ari Korea.
Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Hello.
Thank you for sharing the view of Korea on this topic.
As we mark the 20th anniversary of the convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, we recognize the significant progress that has been made over the past two decades.
The cRPD has transformed how disability is understood around the world from a charity and medical approach to a human rights based approach.
It has advanced accessibility, inclusion, participation and recognition of the rights of dignity of persons with disabilities.
Today, digital transformation offers new opportunities to build on these achievements.
For instance, online education, remote work, and artificial intelligence and digital services can help persons with disabilities participate more fully in the society.
For many of us, digital technology is not just convenient.
It can open the doors to education, employment, independent living and inclusion.
However, digital spaces can also create new risks.
Persons with disabilities are more likely to experience.
Sorry.
Cyber.
Cyber Sorry I lost it.
So the greater risk.
Because they experience multiple forms of discrimination.
The rapid growth of AI brings new challenges as well.
As my colleague mentioned in the earlier session, AI can provide useful information, but it can also make mistakes, spread false information, and repeat harmful stereotypes about disability.
For simple example, we recently saw an automated translation actually from UN home page that you know that this automated translation, when you click the translate into different language and the knowledge section on disability and then the automated translation shows incapacity for disability.
So it could ask you to finish your.
All right, it could it be seen a very simple error.
But these causes bring more serious concerns.
So we therefore call on governments, technology companies, international organizations and civil society to work together to ensure that digital transformation is safe, inclusive, accessible and grounded in human rights.
Thank you.
Mr..
Thank you.
I now recognize Papua New Guinea Association of Persons affected by Hansen's disease.
Please go ahead.
Greetings to you all from Papua New Guinea.
Before I start, I want to let those listening know that some of what I may say may be distressing, as I will reference my own experience of gender based violence.
What are the most urgent risks in forms of violence? In my context, the answer is quite simple women.
I'm a survivor of gender based violence, where my husband attacked me with a bush knife and axe, leaving me to bleed to death.
After decades of living with fear, I fled with my children to the capital city.
As hard as that time was, it happened before I.
I was diagnosed with leprosy.
I often think about what it would mean if it had been unable to leave the house without assistive device, unable to feed or cloth myself without help and with no independent income, my husband had power over me.
But at least I still have the power to run into the family who would take me in.
Without that, the outcome would have been devastating.
What are the gaps in protection and access to justice? There are many women and girls with disabilities do not seek justice because of lack of access to information, service providers, transport and public buildings.
It is only recent years that conversations around gender based violence in PNG have even started.
We have so far to go and we don't have answers to many of these questions yet.
If you have found solution, please approach me and share what you know in PNG.
Most disability representatives are men.
I value their commitment, but I ask, how can they understand what it feels like for a woman with disability to live every day with so little power? How can they know the fear of being exposed to daily violence, the silence of being overlooked, and the hopelessness that nothing will change.
Please, women.
Your remarks to a close.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So much.
I'm very sorry again for the time limits.
Um.
Thank you.
So several speakers have highlighted the importance of inclusion, participation and equal access to participation mechanisms.
Let us now hear from the European Economic and Social Committee.
United States International Council on Disabilities and Global Coalition on the institutionalization.
Please.
The European Economic and Social Committee.
The floor is yours.
Dear colleagues, dear civil society representatives creating a world free from exploitation, violence and abuse for persons with disabilities is not only a moral imperative, it is a legal obligation under the UN cRPD.
Yet today, violence remains a daily reality for many people with disabilities.
It often takes hidden forms, institutional neglect, denial of legal capacity, barriers to justice and deeply rooted discrimination, and those facing intersecting inequalities, especially women and girls with disabilities, are disproportionately exposed.
The European Economic and Social Committee has consistently underlined that these are not isolated issues.
They reflect systemic failures, gaps in protection systems and accessibility support services, and insufficient accountability One of the most severe and unacceptable forms of violence is forced sterilization.
Despite international obligations, this practice still occurs in many member states of the European Union.
Still today.
In some countries, it's even possible to sterilize minors with disabilities.
This is a grave violation of human dignity, bodily autonomy, and fundamental rights.
The message of the committee is clear this must end.
But ending violence requires more that more than condemnation.
It requires action first.
All countries who still allow for sterilization by law, have to amend legislation and ban it.
Second, we must invest in prevention through awareness raising, sexual education, training and inclusive policies that challenge harmful stereotypes, power imbalances and target women with disabilities, their families, medical staff and social workers among them.
Thirdly, conclude please.
Okay, so to the end, to the end, a society that tolerates violence against persons with disability is a society that fails its own values.
A society that listens, includes, and acts can change this reality.
Let us choose action.
Let us choose dignity.
Let us ensure that no one is left behind.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
So the United States International Council on Disability is the floor is yours.
Chair, distinguished delegates and colleagues and fellow advocates My name is Curt Tombs and I represent the United States International Council on Disabilities.
U.sed.
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the cRPD, we are reminded that its promise extends to all persons with disabilities, including refugees and displaced persons.
One parent in our research described carrying his daughter with a disability up a flight of stairs every day because accessible housing was not available when disability inclusive systems are absent, barriers increase and people face greater risk of neglect, exploitation, violence and abuse.
In 2025, USAg conducted research on the experience of refugees and with disabilities and often and often overlooked policy and humanitarian work.
Our research reveals significant gaps.
71% reported substantial functional limitations, more than half were unemployed and 94% believed resettlement staff lacked the adequate disability training.
This is simply not an accessibility issue.
It's a human rights issue.
One research our research found that refugees with disabilities would benefit from stronger connections to organizations of persons with disabilities that can provide expertise, peer support and pathways to meaningful inclusion.
If we are serious about creating a world free from exploitation, violence and abuse, we must move beyond crisis response and toward prevention.
We must build disability inclusive refugee systems that identify risk early, strengthen community supports, and prevent harm before it happens.
That means collecting better data about the experiences of refugees with disabilities.
It means ensuring that organizations of persons with disabilities are included as funded partners in refugee resettlement efforts, and it means ensuring that refugees with disabilities help design the policies and programs intended to serve them.
Usage stands ready to collaborate with partners around the world, expanding research and advancing disability inclusive refugee policies.
Inclusion is not achieved when refugees with disabilities are simply served.
Inclusion is achieved when they are heard, represented and empowered to lead.
A refugee should not lose their rights because they cross a border, and a person with a disability should not lose their dignity because they become a refugee.
Additional information is provided with the QR code provided today.
Thank you.
Uh, with that, I would like to invite Global Coalition on the institutionalization.
The floor is yours.
Very much, chairman.
My name is Priscilla Rodriguez.
I'm speaking on behalf of the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization.
Uh, I want to start by stating what we all know.
Institutionalization is a form of violence.
In its most recent inquiry report, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found that grave and systemic abuses against people with disabilities detained in Mexican institutions, including torture, arbitrary detention, inhuman, inhuman and degrading treatment, even death.
Crucially, the cRPD committee linked institutionalization and with violence and stated that institutionalization in itself is a form of violence.
There are millions of people with disabilities in institutions today, yet we do not have the data, the exact data, the exact number, the exact location where these people are.
20 years since the cRPD was ratified, there is still a huge shift to people with disabilities in institutions.
The institutionalization, the Institutionalization and full community inclusion are vital to end violence against people with disabilities.
There are several tools available to states to start the institutionalization processes now, including the UN guidelines on institutionalization issued by the cRPD committee and the inquiry reports, and specifically the recommendations that the cRPD committee has issued.
In the case of Hungary and Mexico.
And there.
If.
For those who want more information on institutionalization, I invite you to visit the Global Coalition on the institutionalization website and look at our most recent webinar on the institutionalization for the next 20 years, we want from member states serious efforts for data collection of people with disabilities in institutions, including the ability to track where they are and the conditions in which they are detained, and most importantly, serious efforts towards their deinstitutionalization and towards their community inclusion.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for those contributions.
We will now move to perspectives from academia, advocacy and regional initiatives.
I invite to University of Massachusetts Boston Initiative, CE and Africa Albinism Network, the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
The floor is yours.
Hello and thank you.
My name is Stephanie White.
I am a hard of hearing survivor of violence graduate student and project manager for Safe Report at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, led by principal investigator Madhava Palihapitiya, Safe report is a web application designed to support survivors of hate, discrimination and violence to file incident reports with civil authorities while simultaneously connecting to accessible support in their communities.
Following a collaborative governance model, our application development process has been guided by community listening sessions with those closest to the problem, including survivors, human rights commissions, public and private sector agencies, faith and culture communities, grassroots coalitions, and community members.
Our application is survivor centered, allowing the reporter to disclose as much or little information as desired, save drafts, preserve media evidence and most importantly, choose where and how to file reports on their own terms.
Accessing support at all points The report generated by the application meets the standards of relevant agencies to invite their responses.
While the support referral function connects the survivor with real world advocacy.
Furthermore, our application fills an essential research gap.
Our analyses revealed that agencies in our community collecting information about hate and violence had differing numbers in limited data resulting from siloed and non-collaborative collection methods.
This disconnect limited their ability to measure, need, secure funding, identify patterns, and coordinate effective responses.
Safe report creates a streamlined digital space which not only improves response cohesion, but develops mappable intelligence for conflict, early warning, threat analysis, pattern recognition, and atrocity prevention.
I propose our model as replicable for diverse global contexts by centering survivors, prioritizing accessibility and support.
Collaborating across sector lines, communities can build a firm foundation for digital intelligence models that help us better understand hate based violence.
Our goal is not only to understand violence, but to empower communities to resist violence collaboratively, collaboratively, and inclusively.
May I ask you to conclude? Yes.
And accomplish the stated priority of eliminating the most pressing forms of violence affecting persons with disabilities? Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Uh, I would like I would now like to invite Iniciativa LLC.
Uh, the floor is yours.
Hello, everyone I am part of Iniciativa.
That's a Colombian nonprofit created by persons with disabilities and human rights activists.
We aim to eliminate the logic of punishment and confinement by creating community and people centered alternatives.
One of the most urgent risks for people with disability, especially with psychosocial disability, is the violation of legal capacity and the persistence of the biomedical and eugenic model in the policies addressing the so-called mental health in our region, there is an excessive reliance on institutionalization and coercive psychiatric interventions as primary responses to psychosocial distress.
Governments still fail to recognize that these interventions, based on confinement, force treatments and involuntary medications, are a form of torture and undermine autonomy and legal capacity.
The mental health system does not acknowledge that societal factors that affect the emotional well-being of people, ignoring the systems of oppression that generate impossible situations for marginalized groups such as queer trans people, women, people in rural areas, indigenous and other communities.
This excessive reliance on the biomedical model has resulted in a lack of alternatives to address psychosocial distress that are based on human rights and have a people centered approach.
Alternatives that are designed by the people who are the experts on their own disability and don't rely on violence, but autonomy.
With this in mind, we also created an integrated approach that combines legal advocacy, research, public policy, community education, mutual support, and direct accompaniment to people with disabilities.
This holistic strategy addresses both the structural causes of institutionalization and its lasting impacts on individuals and communities.
We are divided in five pillars.
We facilitate a peer led initiative that creates alternatives to medicalized and coercive approaches, strengthening community knowledge, solidarity and collective care.
Uh, our escuela popular loca the mat school where through pedagogy, we build and strengthen collective movements and, um, with people with Matt and Matt.
And I.
Would be grateful if you could conclude your remarks.
And we have a communication strategy and we're right now building this psychiatric violence observatory.
Um that's it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Uh, Africa albinism network.
The floor is yours.
Thank you very much.
Distinct.
Ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Boniface Massa.
I'm the executive director of Africa Albinism Network, a Pan-African organization that supports and promotes the rights of persons with albinism.
Uh, over the last years, uh, in 31 African countries, we have registered over four 849 cases of human rights violations against persons with albinism.
These include, uh, ritual killings, uh, graveyard examination, but also physical attacks.
264 cases have happened.
And as we are speaking for the last three weeks, we have seen a murder case of a 36 year person with albinism in Malawi, a missing of a 18 month child in Madagascar, and a brutal murder of a 14 year old child with albinism in Madagascar.
These are not just numbers but shows a deep rooted stigma, discrimination and violence that is happening in our communities, in our policies, in our homes, and also in our society.
As Africa Network, our approach is to collaborative, collaborative governments, but also working with other civil society organizations to ensure that we deal with super deep rooted stigma, discrimination against persons with albinism.
Access to justice is still a problem, ensuring that there is proper investigations, but also reporting of these human rights violations.
As I mentioned, these attacks are happening in our homes, in our society and in our policies.
It is so difficult for persons with albinism and their organization to stand up, strong and speak.
This calls for all of us as civil society organization, to collaborate with us.
We are also calling upon governments through deployment of National Action Plan and funding of National Action Plan, to have a holistic approach to these interventions, but also the cRPD committee to ensure that through its reporting, ah, holding accountable the Member state when they are doing the investigations, we look forward to a 20 years of transformation of lives, of people with albinism and collaboration in different aspects, including climate change and also human rights promotion.
I thank you.
Thank you.
I would like to note that we are running behind schedule and must finish promptly.
Uh two minutes.
Um, unfortunately, this means that not all speakers will have an opportunity to take the floor during this session.
Um, I would like therefore like to invite remaining speakers, uh, new society institute level test for mezcal and C.f.m and Sound of Silence Africa initiative to return this afternoon to deliver their interventions.
Uh, we will reconvene here at 3 p.m..
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to hearing from you then.
So, uh, thank you all for taking part to this, uh, very important, uh, discussion.
Uh, as we conclude, one message stands out clearly a world free from violence against persons with disabilities will not be achieved through protection measures only.
It requires inclusion, equality, respect to autonomy, and to the meaningful participation of all persons with disabilities in all decisions that affect our lives Thank you all for being part of this important conversation.
Thank you.
You're back here this afternoon Okay, this morning.
Have a