843rd Meeting, 35th Session, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Yeah.
Good morning.
I have the honor to welcome members and all participants to the 35th session of the Committee on the rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Our session learn from today 12 August until 27 August.
I declare open the 843rd meeting of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This is a public meeting and is webcast.
International Sign Language interpretation and captioning are provided.
First, I would like to give the floor to Mr.
Dmitr Chef, Chief of the Equality and non discrimination Branch, thematic and Special Pros Division, and representative of the Secretary-General.
Mr.
Chalf, you have the floor.
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, dear colleagues, friends, on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General, it is an honor for me to open the 35th session of the committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
As the chair said, the 35th session will take place from today, 12th of August until 27th August 2026.
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, on 9th of June 2026, the Conference of State parties elected eight members for the 2027 2030 term and three elected one current member of the committee.
I congratulate them all.
The election results restore the geographical representation of the UN regional groups while maintaining gender balance in the composition of the committee.
The committee led by its chair and vice chairs, together with several committee members, actively participated in the 19th Conference of State Parties to the convention held in New York in June 2026 and made a significant contribution to its main team, namely CRPD at 20, celebrating and consolidating achievements and shaping the next phase of implementation in a changing world.
I commend the committee for this engagement and understand that on 27th August, it will hold a public event to mark the 20th anniversary of the convention and to highlight the committee's contribution to its implementation.
Now, I would like to refer to important developments at the international level concerning persons with disabilities.
During its 61st regular session on 13 March 2026, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 61 slash nine on the rights of persons with disabilities.
The resolution emphasizes the need to focus on disability inclusive digital technologies and infrastructure, including transport and housing.
The council called upon all states to take appropriate measures to ensure access to affordable and accessible digital technologies and devices, including quality assistive technologies as well as accessible infrastructure including transport and housing.
This is essential to guarantee the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities and to ensure their inclusion in the community on an equal basis with others and without discrimination through a gender responsive and age sensitive approach.
On 30th of March, the council also adopted resolution 61 slash 18 on mental health and Human Rights.
The Council acknowledged with appreciation the committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guidelines on the institutionalization, including in emergency.
Notably, the council urged states to take active steps to fully integrate the human rights perspective into mental health and community services and to adopt, implement, update, strengthen, or monitor as appropriate all existing laws, policies, and practices in line with international human rights obligation with a view to eliminating all forms of discrimination, stigma, stereotypes, prejudice, violence, abuse, social exclusion, segregation, unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, instituted neization and over medicalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services.
It further urged states to promote the rights of those persons to live independently to equality and non discrimination, and to access holistic mental health services and support that are free from coercion, respect legal capacity, and informed consent, and promote full and effective inclusion and participation in society, including in decisions on matters affecting them with their dignity respected on an equal basis with others.
I also wish to acknowledge the committee's open letter of 1st of July 2026, which once again called on the Council of Europe to immediately halt any action that perpetuates coercion in mental health, and urge member states of the Council to pause and withdraw the draft additional protocol to the Ovietu Convention and to uphold the human rights obligation under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In June 2026, the Human Rights Council also decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities for further period of three years.
The council also adopted the resolution 62 slash 13, in which it acknowledged that women and girls are subject to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, as well as systemic forms of discrimination throughout their lives.
The resolution urged states to take measures to build and strengthen gender, disability, and age responsive, human rights based approach and sustainable care and support systems.
The first meeting of the open ended intergovernmental working group mandate to elaborate and submit to the Human Rights Council a draft internationally legally binding instrument on the human rights of older persons took place in Geneva from 13th to 17th July 2026.
The working group considered the discussion paper prepared by the chair Rapporteur from Argentina Member States and observers, United Nations agencies, national human rights institutions, and representatives of civil society and all the persons address the meeting.
Delegation speakers identified a number of areas of convergence, including the need for human rights based treaty guided by the centrality of the dignity of all the persons.
Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, on 11 June 2026, the High Commissioner for Human Rights officially launched the Global Alliance for Human Rights.
A far reaching long term initiative aimed at placing human rights at the heart of political leadership, public debate, and everyday life.
The alliance is intended to drive change through four strategic pathways, reflecting a simple premise.
Human rights must be lived locally, defended in moments of risk, understood and trusted by people, embedded in future facing solutions, and supported by resilient institutions and sustainable resources.
The four pathways include human rights at home, making human rights real in people's daily lives through local action and implementation.
Human rights in action, standing with victims and defenders and advancing equality, accountability, and justice, human rights in mind, reimagining how human rights are communicated, learned, and understood, and finally, human rights for the future.
Harnessing innovation, technology, and engagement to address global challenges with human rights at the center.
We count on your support for this transformative initiative.
Together, we can ensure that human rights remain the foundation of peace, security, and sustainable development.
Madam Chair, distinguished members, treaty bodies continue to face unprecedented constraints due to the liquidity crisis affecting the regular budget of the organization.
As a result, in 2026, your meeting time was reduced to only five weeks.
We understand that this has caused significant delays resulting in the cancellation of state party reviews and pre sessional working groups.
Coupled with a decrease in state party reports received in 2026, this has had serious consequences for the functioning of the committee.
The High Commissioner has consistently warned that if this trend continues, the treaty body system risks reaching a breaking point.
He has called for innovative ideas and solutions, including in connection with the UN 80 initiative.
We reiterate the Secretary-General call to member states to pay their contributions on time and in full to enable the organization to continue its essential work.
The 38th annual meeting of the chairs of the human rights treaty bodies was held in Geneva in June 2026.
The chairs considered the three proposals contained in the OCHR working paper on enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the UN human rights Ty system, namely, clustering and rgationalization, together with a predictable calendar.
Secondly, digitalization and online reporting, and finally, greater transparency in the nomination and election of the experts.
OCHA is now working to unpacking and developing the proposals and their operational implications further, including in light of the Chair's request to provide further details.
I'm confident that through collaboration, innovation, and shared commitment, we can navigate these difficult times and to ensure that the essential work of protecting human rights continues to move forward.
Madam Chair, distinguished members, in this session, you will engage in dialogues with five parties to the convention, Chile, Lithuania, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and Slovakia and review their reports on the implementation of the convention.
You will also continue your work on channel comments and guidelines.
On behalf of the Secretary-General, I thank the committee members, the state parties to the convention, and those stakeholders who have actively prepared this 35th session.
Recognizing that you have a heavy program ahead of you for the next few weeks, I'll conclude here by extending my very best wishes for a successful and productive session.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Chef, for your opening statement.
I will now make my opening statement, including an update on the committee's intersectional activities.
Distinguished colleagues, representative of State deties, colleagues from the United Nations, representative of the Organization of Persons with Disabilities, and ladies and gentlemen.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 35th session of the Committee on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Since the closure of our 31st session, the committee group and I continued our engagement to support the effective functioning of the committee and to advance the implementation of the convention.
The past several months have been particularly important for the committee and for the International Human Rights system.
In June, the committee participated in the 19th session of the convention of state party to the a conference of the State departy to the convention at the United Nations headquarters in New York, we see this year mark the 26th anniversary of the CLPD.
Under the term CLPD at 20, celebrating and considerating achievement and shaping the next path of implementation in changing world, state departies, persons with disabilities, and their representative organizations, United Nations entities and civil society, reflect on the achievement of the convention and on the challenges that remain before us.
In my opening address, I emphasized that the CLPD fundamentally changes how the world understands disability.
It moves the disability from welfare to human rights from charity to dignity, from exclusion to participation, and from invisibility to recognition.
But 20 years of implementation have also turns on another fundamental lessons.
No state implementation, this convention alone, no countries but inclusion alone.
International cooperation under Article 32 is therefore not optional.
It is essential to implementation.
Such a cooperation must encompass not only financing, but also technical cooperation, knowledge sharing, capacity building, and solidarity among state, United Nations entities, national human rights institutions, Organization of persons with disabilities, and other partners.
During COSP 19, the committee also contribute to discussion directly connected to our current normative work, including political and public participation, intersectional discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, and disability based balance.
Distinguished colleagues, immediately following CSP 19, I participated in the 38th annual meeting of the chair of the United Nations Human Rights treaty bodies held in Geneva 2015-1919.
June.
Our discussion took place at a particularly difficult moment for the treaty body system.
The United Nations liquidated this crisis as leader did in reduced meeting time, pressure and secretary capacity, restriction on stakeholders participation, and serious challenges to the predictable and effective functioning of the treaty body.
The chairs exed for the immediate response to the financial crisis and brought a proposal to strengthen and reform the treaty body system.
Once, conclusion was particularly important.
Crisis management is not liform.
Tempatory measures adopted because of financial constraint must not become the new normal.
Efficiency cannot replace the adequate financing.
Lform must safeguard the treaty body independence, the specific mandate of the Egypt committee, and the meaningful participation of rightholders, national human rights institution and civil society.
Accessibility and reasonable accommodation are legal obligation and essential conditions for the equal participation of committee members, persons with disabilities, and their representative organization in the International Human Rights System.
Within this broad discussion, the High Commissioner has proposed a greater regionalization or decentralization of treaty body work.
Any such model wants to preserve the universality, independence, and coherence of the treaty body system.
For our committee, accessibility and reasonable accommodation must be incorporated from the outset and fully costed so that LIform does not create any new barriers to the equal participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organization.
At the end of June, I also participated in France struggles in an important exchange between dist of the European Court of Human Rights and representative of the United Nations Human Rights treaty bodies.
That dialogue remind us of the importance of strengthening cooperation between international and regional human rights mechanisms.
From the perspective of CLPD, I emphasize the continuing need for the human rights jurisprudence to reflect the paradigm sad established by the CLPD, particularly in areas such as equality and non discrimination, legal capacity, deprivation of liberty, institutionalization, Co corive treatment.
Different human rights system have their own legal foundation and jurisprudence, but they share a common responsibility to ensure that human rights law responds to changing reality while protecting the dignity, autonomy, and equality of every person.
Distinguished colleagues, we are now beginning our 35th session with the ambitious Sosa program.
During this session, the committee will conduct a constructive dialogue with five state parties, Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Slovakia, Chile, and Qatar.
As part of our core responsibility to monitor implementation of the convention and support the effective legalization at the national level.
This constructive dialogue remind at the heart of our mandate.
They provide an opportunity not simply to the exam law and policies, but to assess whether the light guaranteed by the convention are being experienced in the everyday lives of persons with disabilities.
The committee will also continue its normative work concerning Article 11 of the Convention on situational risk and humanitarian emergencies.
This work is increasingly urgent.
Armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies, climate related digester and displacement continue to have disproportionation consequence for persons with disabilities.
Too often, persons with disabilities are excluded from inbatec, humanitarian assistance, accessible information and essential services, while women, children, and older persons with disabilities face additional and intersecting risk.
Article 11 reminds us that they rights do not disappear in time of crisis on the contrary.
On the contrary, it is pricely in moments of the greatest danger that the obligation of the state and the international community become most urgent.
We will also advance our work on Article 29 concerning participation in political and public life.
Participation cannot be reduced to consultation.
Person with disability must be able to vote, stand the election, hold the public office, participate in political party and organizations, and take part meaningfully in public decision making.
The committee will also continue to work on the guideline on identifying the addressing intersectional discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, as well as the guideline on disability based violence.
These are crucial area of our work.
Discrimination does not occur in isolation.
Disability intersect with gender, age, race, SNCs, D in DUO identity, migrant status pervert in many other circumstance.
Women and go with disability in particular, many experience multiples intersection for discrimination that cannot be adequately understood or addressed through a single axis approach.
Simply balance against a person with disability may structure institutional and persistent and many sometimes be hid behind the language of protection, treatment or care.
Our responsibility is to make this form of discrimination and balance visible and to provide clear guidance to state on prevention, protection, accountability, access to justice, and effectiveness remedies.
Thetish colleagues, this session also carried an additional and historical significance.
We are meeting during the convention 20 anniversary the year.
This anniversary is more than a commemoration.
It is a moment to take stock of progress, confront persistent barriers and shape the next phase of implementation.
Ten years ago, the CLPD transformed the global understanding of disability by establishing a human rights based framework ground in dignity, equality, autonomy, and full participation.
It has continued to stronger legal protection, greater accessibility, and increased participation.
Yet progress remains uneven, Colet humanitarian crisis, climate changes, growing inequity and rapid technical transformation creating new challenges while many longstanding barriers remain undeserved.
The conventions defining strengths has always been the leadership of persons with disability and their representative organizations.
Nothing about us without us must remain our set for the picture.
The question before us today is not only whether rights are recogni al, but whether they are experienced in everyday life.
A.
On 27 August, the final day of this session, we will hold a special symposium examining the committee's journey, its present challenges and its future direction.
20 years after the adoption of the convention, liation alone is no longer sufficient.
Our responsibility is to accelerate the implementation and translate the promise of the convention into measurable change from rice on paper to leave the justice.
As we begin this session, I would like once again to lialize the indispensable lure of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.
Their participation is not supplementary to the work of this committee.
It is fundamental to its y and effectiveness.
I also wish to thanks my fellow committee members, our secretarial, colleagues from OHHR State Party, and all partners who continue to support the work of our committee under very challenging circumstance.
The first 20 years established the standard.
The next decade must make those standards a life is realty for every person with disability everywhere.
Thank you so much.
Now I will hear from the distinguished speaker who have to join us in person and pre liquidity video messages for the opening of the 35th session.
I kindly ask all speakers participation in person to respect the speaking time communicated by the Secretariat.
We will begin with a pre liquid video message from His Excellency, Zant Dasria, ambassador and permanent representative of Sri Lanka and the chair of the conference of a state depty to the Convention on the Alls of Persons with Disabilities.
Thank you for the opportunity to join the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The convention has become one of the most widely supported international treaties.
Today, 183 states parties have ratified or acceded to the CRPD, demonstrating an unprecedented global commitment to advancing the cause for the rights of over 1 billion persons with disabilities.
Over the two decades, the CRPD has fundamentally changed how the world understands and deals with disability from a charity or health focused issue to a matter of rights, equality, and full participation in society and development for all.
This special occasion provides us as states parties a unique opportunity not only to celebrate achievements, but also to reflect on how far we have come and what remains to be done.
First, the CRPD has given remarkable progress in national legal and policy development.
Since 2006, notable progress has been gained in nearly all countries worldwide.
Many countries in line with the CRPD, revised their constitutions, enacted anti discriminatory legislation, strengthened accessibility standards, adopted inclusive education policies, and reformed laws on employment, political participation, and independent living.
Second, disability has been increasingly recognized and included in major global development agendas.
In 2015, people with disabilities were explicitly included for the first time in global development commitments.
Today, seven SDG targets explicitly reference persons with disabilities in the 2030 agenda, covering education, employment, reducing inequalities, accessible public spaces, and data collection.
Likewise, the international community also committed to the rights of persons with disabilities and advancing disability inclusive development in other international instruments, for instance, in the political Declaration of the Second Social Development Summit and the Servil commitments.
All of these represent a lofty promise of leaving no one behind.
Third, over the decades, the work on accessibility has slowly but consistently expanded and deepened from mainly physical infrastructure to include digital technologies, information communication, transportation, and public services.
Universal design is increasingly recognized as a prerequisite for inclusive societies rather than an optional accommodation.
Disability inclusion and accessibility is gradually embraced as a good and smart practice in development and societies.
Fourth, which is very critical in our view is that persons with disabilities and their representative organization are now increasingly recognized as essential partners in designing, implementing, and monitoring laws and policies, meaning persons with disabilities as important agents of changes is contributing to sustainable development and resilient societies.
All these illustrative achievements demonstrate that the CRPD has influenced our policies and practices.
Furthermore, they also reshaped international cooperation.
While progress has been substantial, the work is far from complete.
The latest UN flagship report on disability and development reminds us that persons with disabilities continue to experience significant disparities in education, employment, healthcare, food security, digital access, and access to energy.
Our progress made so far has been limited and uneven and many sustainable development goal targets remain off track for persons with disabilities.
The scale of the challenge is enormous.
As we look to the next decade, we must enhance our actions and efforts.
First and foremost is move beyond commitments to full implementation.
Strong legislation and policies must be accompanied by adequate financing, effective institutions, measurable indicators, and accountability mechanisms.
Second, investing in accessibility and universal design, not only in physical infrastructure, but also in digital technologies, artificial intelligence, public services, transportation, education, health care, emergency preparedness.
Third, further international cooperation and ensure that persons with disabilities are fully included in emerging global priorities.
Sri Lanka's commitment to the CRPD rests on a foundation laid well before our ratification of the convention in 2016.
Today, Sri Lanka is working to strengthen this framework.
New disability rights legislation is being advanced to bring our domestic law fully into line with the Convention.
Our National Disability policy and action plan are being renamed.
We have prioritized signified living conditions and institutional infrastructure improvements.
We strongly promote rehabilitation, empowerment, and reintegration of persons of disability.
Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the next 20 years must be defined not by new commitments alone, but by measurable improvements in the everyday lives of persons with disabilities.
The CR that transforming societies is possible with commitment, determined efforts, and actions on the ground.
Our collective responsibility now is to accelerate implementation so that every person with a disability can enjoy equal opportunities, exercise their rights, and participate fully in every aspect of society.
The next chapter of the CRPD is therefore about delivering on the promise.
I thank you.
I thank you His Excellency for the messages.
I now give the floor to His Excellency, Ambassador gab Kabel Dhaka of Ethiopia, Chair of the Human Rights Council Tskperon Accessibility.
Your Excellency, you have the floor.
Madam Chair, distinguished committee members, it is a privilege to address you at the opening of the 35th session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in my capacity as Vice President of the Human Rights Council and chair of the Council's Task Force on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities.
This session has particular significance.
This year marks 20 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
With 193 parties, the convention now enjoys near universal reach.
This anniversary offers an opportunity to celebrate progress under the convention and to renew our shared commitment to its full implementation.
The task force was established pursuant to council resolution 16 slash 21, 16 slash 21 to study measures to enhance accessibility for persons with disabilities through the Human Rights Council and the work of its mechanisms and to make concrete recommendations in accordance with international human rights standards.
I'm therefore particularly pleased to address this distinguished committee, which has played an instrumental role in advancing and promoting those standards globally.
An important aspect of my role is to engage with states and all stakeholders of the council to increase awareness of accessibility requirements and to support the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in the council's work.
As the principal intergovernmental body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights, the Human Rights Council is not only a forum in which human rights are discussed, but also a space in which rights must be exercised.
This includes the right to freedom of expression and the right of persons with disabilities to participate fully and effectively.
Accessibility must therefore be regarded as a fundamental and non negotiable element of the council's work.
Measures taken at the council have progressively improved accessibility.
The use of subtitled video statements by states and civil society organizations is now well established.
Supporting broader participation.
Reasonable accommodation measures have also become an increasingly integral part of the council's work.
More broadly, accessibility is no longer viewed as an exceptional consideration, but as an essential component of meaningful participation in multilateral processes.
Since assuming the chairmanship of the task force, I have worked closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Secretariat of this committee, and member states to improve both physical and digital accessibility at the council.
Together with the Secretariat, I have also participated in a walkthrough of relevant facilities.
Particular emphasis has been placed on raising awareness of available accessibility services and encouraging more proactive approach to inclusion.
The task force has also encouraged improvements in administrative processes that support participation.
Accessibility requirements can now be more effectively identified during registration processes for consultations, enabling the Secretariat to provide information and consider accommodation measures earlier and more systematically.
This represents an important step towards more responsive and user centered approach to accessibility.
A significant development has been the return of human rights consultations at the renovated Building A and Assembly Hall, following major works undertaken as part of the strategic Heritage plan.
Accessibility considerations were integrated into these renovations, including improvements to entrances and circulation routes, elevators, automated doors, signage and way finding systems, accessible sanitation facilities, and conference infrastructure.
These upgrades have enhanced the accessibility of principal venues in which the council conducts its work and represent an important step toward ensuring that participation is possible on an equal basis for persons with disabilities.
The Council and UNOG have also improved administrative arrangements to better identify and respond to accessibility requirements.
Registration processes now allow participants to indicate specific accessibility needs in advance, enabling the Secretariat to provide more tailored information and consider reasonable accommodation earlier and more systematically.
The task force will also continue to explore participation arrangements that can extend the reach of the council's work, including appropriate remote participation options.
Accessible digital platforms can help ensure that persons with disabilities are able to participate on an equal basis.
The task force continues to advocate for participation arrangements that maximize inclusion and accessibility and has consistently highlighted the importance of accessible digital platforms, including features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and customizable accessibility settings.
Digital accessibility has emerged as an important area of work.
The task force has explored opportunities presented by technological developments, including advances in automated captioning and other accessibility tools.
While such technologies offer significant potential to enhance participation, they must be implemented in a manner that complements rather than replaces existing accessibility services and safeguards.
New technologies should be guided by the principles of universal design and developed in consultation with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.
More broadly, accessibility continues to be increasingly embedded across the council's work.
At its 61st session, the council's annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities focused on disability inclusive infrastructure, including transport and housing.
The council also adopted without a vote resolution 61 slash nine on the rights of persons with disabilities, disability, inclusive digital technologies and infrastructure, including transport and housing.
At the same time, the special reporter presented her report on the equal participation of persons with disabilities in political life.
These strands reinforce the understanding that disability inclusion is relevant to all human rights issues and not only those specifically focused on persons with disabilities.
Looking ahead, the task force will continue to pursue a practical and results oriented agenda.
Current priorities include improvements to physical accessibility within the pallet and Aons, strengthening awareness of existing services, improving accessibility of digital tools and communications, and encouraging greater engagement by member states, advancing accessibility across the council's work.
Our objective is clear to strengthen a systematic, sustainable, and inclusive approach that enables the full, effective and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of the council's activities.
In this regard, I intend to continue consultations with states and the United Nations entities and to deepen engagement with civil society organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities, including through meetings of the task force in the months ahead.
I warmly welcome the continued engagement of this committee and of persons with disabilities themselves.
I would also value the committee's advice, particularly in identifying priorities, testing facilities and services, and advancing accessible information.
Persons with disabilities and their representative organizations must be involved from the outset.
As always, our efforts should be guided by the principle, nothing about us, without us.
As we mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the convention, accessibility is firmly recognized as a precondition for equality, participation and institutional credibility.
My commitment is to use the task force to advance proactive and systematic inclusion throughout the council works.
I appreciate the committee's attention and extend my best wishes for a productive 35th sessions.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Excellency, for your messages.
Now we will hear a pre recorded video message from miss Maria Solid Cistrina Cros, former chair of the committee and former Special envoy of the Secretary-General on accessibility and disability.
A very good morning, dear colleagues of the CRPD committee.
I'm honored to be at this 35th session of this committee.
This is a committee for which we have all worked so hard.
I remember when we began the very first meeting, when we were to establish the rules of procedure of the committee and the guidelines for the submission of new reports, and also the working methods.
That session was truly a difficult one and I would like to thank the Secretariat for all of the support provided to us during that time.
Also, I'd like to say that chairperson such as Ron McCallum, Mohammed Al Tawe, Teresa Deji, Gertrude Ofrewa, Rosemary Keyes, Amon Kim, and including myself, enjoyed support to carry out a colossal task of this committee, which not only relates to the work itself of the committee, but we had to focus on ensuring that the human rights model was present with such an innovative legal instrument in the 21st century.
Our jurisprudence was revolutionary and featured in the general comments related to the equal recognition of persons before the law, accessibility, Also women and children with disabilities, inclusive education, and we pave the way for a general discussion on living independently and being included in the community.
Just to mention some of the topics that I presided over on the committee.
Then other valuable general comments emerge such as those on inclusive equality and the right to living independently and being included in the community.
The optional protocol which developed the views of the committee, which were truly interesting and very much highlighted the committee's activity.
This included the judiciary in various countries.
We took a stance on persons who had committed crimes against humanity.
Also mentioned persons who were charged with crimes and who had an intellectual psychosocial disability.
I believe that that work was truly trailblazing.
We also undertook a tremendous effort of cross cutting and ensuring that the disability perspective was cross cutting in all human rights committees.
We had an opportunity to be at the meeting of treaty body chairs when the 2030 agenda was drafted.
Luckily, was down to the CRPD committee to open the session of the General Assembly in 2013, where the 2030 agenda was to be discussed.
That is why we had a very significant impact on the 2030 agenda on at least five SDGs, their goals, and also the indicators of other SDGs.
We were also able to participate in resolution 68 slash 268 on treaty body strengthening.
At the same time, we took part in the development of guidelines against intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders.
We were able to really highlight and understand the meaning of various regional bodies.
We held sessions with them in Geneva.
We also had sessions with regional human rights defender bodies and national human rights institutions.
We carried out cross cutting work with cities and local governments and also with various Areas of humanitarian law.
We were involved in a number of technical documents, which included the right to a habitat and also the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts.
I believe that the committee's work has had a real impact across the years and that is why this committee has been placed on a seat of honor, if you will.
We've been placed at the very forefront, and we have worked and drew up guidelines on the freedom and security of persons or guidelines against institutionalization.
There is so much work to be done.
However, I am certain that this committee's members who abide by independence and impartiality, who are engaged in the active listening of all stakeholders in the implementation of a context based approach, the implementation of an intersectional approach, and the proactive realization of their initiatives.
I'm very sure that they will be able to continue to be on the seat of honor of human rights.
I would invite you then to stand united in a symbolic and brotherly embrace at such a wonderful point in time.
We must claim that we are in the area of rights and not of favors.
Thank you so much.
We will now hear a full liquid video message from Mr.
Chiang Noga, chair of the Human Rights Committee, and chair of the annual meeting of the chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Trey bodies.
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends.
It is a great honor to address the opening of the 35th session of the committee on the rights of Persons with Disabilities.
I warmly thank Chair Mian Kim for her kind invitation and regret that I cannot join you in person.
On behalf of the chairpersons of all ten human rights treaty bodies, I bring our warmest wishes for this commemorative session.
20 years ago, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first comprehensive Human Rights treaty of the 21st century, a treaty that changed not only the international law, but how the world understands disability.
It affirmed persons with disabilities as a full holders of rights, not objects of charity and gave our entire system a guiding principle, nothing about us without us.
On this anniversary, let me recall what this convention and this committee have given our system as a whole.
Drafted with the unprecedented participation of persons with disabilities and their organizations, the convention renewed the very idea of how international law is made.
It's a human rights model of disability now informs the work of every committee.
Its insistence on accessibility has become a benchmark for us all.
Thanks in no small part to this committee, the chairs have committed that accessibility be built in from the start, ensuring no one is excluded from our work owing to disability.
This committee did not simply join the treaty body the family, it has helped renew it.
Yet, I must also speak frankly.
We mark this milestone at a time when the entire treaty body system stands at a crossroads.
The United Nations liquidity crisis has had direct consequences for protection.
Sessions canceled, reviews postponed, individual communications delayed.
Your committee has felt this directly, even so as Chair Kim made clear at our 38th annual meeting of the chairpersons this June, your determination is unwavering.
But behind every postponed dialogue stand rights holders, among them, millions of persons with disabilities.
These are the administrative inconveniences.
They create profound protection gaps for those who rely on us most.
At the same meeting, the ten chairpersons responded with one voice to the high commissioner's proposals for the system's future.
We welcomed the modernization provided it makes our system more accessible, not less.
But efficiency is no substitute for resources.
Without financial independence of treaty bodies, no reform can endure and a trade off that reduces protection cannot be made on credit.
Sustaining this system ultimately rests with the states.
This is a question not only of resources, but of priorities and political wills.
Even in difficult times, the protection of human rights must remain a core purpose of the United Nations.
I respectfully appeal to states parties, sustain the system you created and keep it on a sound and preferable predictable footing.
The High Commissioner has offered one idea that merits careful consideration of financial firewall to safeguard treaty body funding.
For our part, we will continue to do what we are here to do.
Meeting the challenges ahead will demand deeper cooperation among us so that international human rights standards are implemented consistently and effectively.
And one principle must never change.
The system belongs to rights holders and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their organizations is not a courtesy, but a requirement of the convention itself.
Madam Chair, distinguished members, this year, the two International Covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights turn 60 and your convention turns 20.
Your committee reminds us all that rigorous protection and genuine inclusion go hand in hand.
As you open this, you carry the solidarity of all ten treaty bodies.
I wish you a most productive 35th session.
I thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you so much.
Now, we will hear a free recorded video message from miss Ola Abu Akhava of the Global Disability Fund.
Because of the technical situation, now I give the floor to miss Monica Hale of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Miss Hale, you have the floor.
Thank you very much.
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
Firstly, let me congratulate the committee on the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and all of its progress and accomplishments.
I have the honor of serving as the head of the Accessible Books Consortium, or ABC, as it's known, a public private partnership, which includes the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Blind Union, the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, and the Dazing Consortium, as well as a global community of libraries, publishers, and authors.
This partnership works towards a clear objective of implementing the objectives and aims of the Marrakesh Treaty for people who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled.
We seek to increase the number of books available in accessible formats, including both digital and embossed braille for the benefit of people who are blind, have low visioned, or otherwise print disabled.
ABC Partners, the World Blind Union, and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, or ICBI, have issued a global Declaration on Braille literacy and education, which was launched in New York in June during the convention.
It has been endorsed by the Accessible books Consortium, and I'm here to present it to you to the committee on their behalf.
The WU and ICBI Global Declaration on Braille literacy is a significant civil society initiative grounded on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in particular, Article 9 on accessibility, Article 21 on access to information, and Article 24 on education.
As you know, these three provisions mention Braille explicitly.
The WBU and ICBI Global Declaration is not an attempt to break new ground.
It simply reinforces the work done by the CRPD over the years.
In particular, it supports recommendations about Braille made by the CRPD in its concluding observations.
As you all know, studies have shown that persons who are blind and Braille literate achieve significantly higher levels of educational attainment, higher rates of employment, and higher earnings than those who do not read Braille.
Just to be clear about one point, this is not braille versus technology.
Text to speech, audio books, and assistive devices all have real and impactful roles in the lives of people who are blind, but they are complementary to Braille, not substitutes for it.
Digital tools and Braille are mutually reinforcing.
Students who are blind require both braille and assistive technology.
The Global Declaration on Brail literacy provides a detailed action plan so that civil society organizations can advocate and build on the work of the CRPD with respect to BRL and use it to request concrete action by member states for the implementation of national BRL policies.
I would like to acknowledge the recommendations made recently by the committee, in particular in relation to Article 24 on education with respect to BRL.
It is my understanding that the committee has treated this provision as a BRL literacy obligation.
Not merely an obligation to hand over braille format materials.
For example, in its concluding observations, the CRPD emphasized the teaching, learning, and use of braille and highlighted that braille should be made available with an inclusive education and not only be confined to segregated settings.
The committee's concluding observations also reference the chronic shortage of inclusive education teachers and specialist support staff trained in Braille.
The CRPD concluding observations include recommendations for training of teachers in Braille and recognize that providing Braille books or Braille technology is simply not enough if the educational system has no one capable of teaching students and supporting Braille literacy.
The WU and ICVI Global Declaration on Braille literacy calls on countries to one, enshrine the right to brail literacy explicitly in national education laws and policies.
Ensure that every child who needs braille has a specially trained teacher and timely access to Braille textbooks, tactile graphics, and materials in their national language alongside assistive technology, not instead of it, and build systems to assess who needs braille and to deliver it promptly because the research is clear, early access is the single strongest predictor of a child's future success.
What should be our next steps? We have complimentary rules In my view, the CRPD makes its recommendations through its concluding observations on country reports, and we propose that civil society members using the WBU and ICBI Global Declaration, should advocate and lobby member states for national Braille policies and investment in Braille teaching that will pay dividends for generations.
Many thanks to the committee for this opportunity to address you today.
And again, congratulations on the 20th anniversary of the convention.
I would be glad to answer any questions during the break and to provide further details about the work of the Accessible books consortium, as well as our partners.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, miss Monika Hale.
Now, I give the floor to the representative of the International Disability Alliance, either the President, doctor Nawa Kabara.
You have the floor.
Thank you.
Chairperson of the committee, distinguished members of the committee state representatives, representative of the United Nations, colleagues from Organization of Persons with Disability.
Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen.
It's a great privilege to address you today on behalf of the International Disability Alliance.
I would like to begin with three messages.
Message one, IDA stand firmly in support of the committee on the right of personal viability, its independence, its mandate, and its essential role ensuring the implementation of the convention.
Message number two, IDA expresses its support to the people of Colombia, Venezuela, and all other countries that are facing disasters and armed conflicts, and in particular for persity in these countries.
Measures three, we hope that the pervisability speech will be the first to the committee, not the last.
Ten years after the adoption of the convention, we should remind ourselves that the CRPD represent much more than another International Human Rights Treaty.
It marked a profound transformation in the understanding of disability from viewing person disability as object of charity, protection and medical intervention to recognizing a subject of rights, equal citizens and people who have the right to live in dignity.
International Human Rights mechanism provide feasibility, accountability, and sometimes the last avenue through which their voice can be heard.
This is why adequate and sustainable resources for the committee, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the wide human rights system must be understood not simply as administrative expenditures, but as an investment in human dignity and human rights.
In this sense, I called the NOG and the OHCHR to ensure accessibility services for online briefing with OPDs at least during the incisional period for the adoption of the list of issues of their countries.
As you know, OPDs are not simply stakeholders to be consulted after decision have already been prepared.
They are right holders.
Sources of knowledge, partners in implementation, and essential actors in monitoring state compliance with the convention.
I therefore remains committed to supporting the meaningful, diverse, and independent participation of OPDs in the work of the committee.
In connection to this, IDA appreciate stand ready to support and look forward to a thorough, participatory and sound process for the development of a general comment on Article 32 CRPD in which OPDs can greatly contribute and other stakeholders have sufficient time to provide input, engage, and embrace transformative outcome, a strong and solid general comment that shaped disability inclusive international cooperation.
Colleagues, 20 years after the adoption of the Convention, our tax is not only to defend what has been achieved.
We must ask what the CRPD requires of us in a rapidly changing world.
Artificial intelligence and digitalization are transforming employment, education, health care, social protection, community, and public decision making.
Climate change and conflicts, humanitarian crisis, democratic changes, and increasing inequality are creating new forms of exclusion while intensifying existing ones.
The principle of the convention remains our foundation, but this application must evolve with this new reality.
That is why we are calling today for a CRPD plus.
Accessibility must increasingly include digital and algorithm accessibility.
Nondiscrimination must address Non discion must address discrimination that can be embedded in automated decision making system and data, and participation must extend to the design and governance of the technologies that incively shape our life.
Around the world, military expenditure is increasing dramatically while the resources available for human rights, poverty, eradication, health, education, social protection, inclusion, and international cooperation remain inadequate.
This force us to ask a fundamental question, what do we mean by security? Security cannot be ensured only by military capacity or the number of weapons a country possess.
Real security must begin with the security of a human being.
This is why ADA believed that the ability movement has something important to contribute to the global debate about security.
This is where I support the initiative for a Human Rights Alliance that we heard today.
Today here in Geneva, I would like to announce an important initiative.
We would like personal viability, civil society to work and to push for less weaponization and more investment in human right and human security.
The world does not need an endless race toward more weapons and greater capacity for destruction.
The world needs greater investment in people, dignity, equality, inclusion, and our common future.
20 years ago, the international community made a historic commitment to CRPD.
Our responsibility today is not simply to preserve that achievement.
It is to make it real.
On behalf of the International Disability Alliance, I reaffirm our strong support for the committee on the right of Psvisability, for the United Nations Human Rights system, and for our shared commitment to the dignity, equity, equality, and right of all Psvisability.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Our presenter, doctor Nabu Kaba.
Now, I would like to give the floor to miss Sawala Dongguai, the former committee member, now Chairperson of the Asian Disability Forum.
Miss Donggua, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, the committee members and distinguished participants.
The Aseian Disability Forum is honored to address the committee on behalf of OPDs across Southeast Asia, as we approach the 20th anniversary of the conventions on behalf of ADF or Asean Disability Forum, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for the committee's leadership in advancing disability rights through constructive dialogues to adopt general comments Concluding of the observations, individual communications and engagement with OPDs, the committee transforms the convention from a legal instruments into a living human rights framework that contributes to shape laws, policies and practices across all the world and our regions.
For disability movements across Southeast Asia, the committee's interpretations of the convention provides essential normative guidance It strengthened our advocacy for legal reform, inclusive public policies, and accountability, reinforcing the fundamental principle of nothing about us without us.
We have witnesses in collating blocklist across Southeast Asia.
Many countries have strengthened disability legislations and coordination mechanisms As of Southeast Asia Association of Southeast Asian Nations has increasingly recognized disability inclusion at central to sustainable development, including through the development of the Asean Enabling Master Plan on Disability Port 2025, yet Our life experience reminds us that adopting laws is only the beginning.
Some of the most difficult issues remain lastly and invisible and widely misunderstood, not only by the governments, but also by professionals, service providers, communities and families.
These include legal capacity, supported decision making, traditional care and support system, independent living, institutionalized agents, cohenive practices in health and social care, and respect for autonomies.
These are not abstract legal concepts.
They determines whether persons with disability can make their own decisions, choose where and with whom they want to live, manage their finances, build religions, access justice, refuse unwanted treatment, and participate equally in communities.
These consequences are particular serious for women and girls with disability who continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including gender based violence, forced contraceptions, and sterilization, denial of reproductive autonomy, and substitute decision making that deprives them of control over their own life.
20 years after the conventions adoptions, Many persons with disability, particular persons with intellectual and psychosocial disability continue to experience guardianship, involuntary treatment, institutionalization, tap faking and exploitations, violence and abuse via online or either online or offline formats.
These are not isolated violations.
The net persistent discriminations and the continuing perceptions of persons with disability as objects of care than holders of rights, From the perspective of Asia disability forums, the committee's jurisprudence has been indepenable in addressing these complex challenges.
Asia and the Pacific remains the only major regions without a regional human rights Tribunals.
As a result, the committees general comments, concluding all the observations and jurisprudence often served as the principal sources of human rights guide.
Aal human rights institutions, OPDs and civil society organizations.
In particular, general comment number one has come from understanding of Article 12 by demonstrating that legal capacity is the foundations for realizing many other rights under the conventions, including equality and non discriminations.
Access to justice, liberty, freedom from violence, bodily inturs and the rights to live independently and be included in the community.
For these reasons, the Asian Disability Forum respectfully encourages the committees to develop an easy lead and play lankt versions of general command number one as an interpretive guidance.
Making this landmark guidance contextuous, accessible to all persons with disability, families, judges, service providers, government, a state party, and community leader, would strengthen understanding, empower like holder and support it, and support practical implementations across our regions.
As a disability forum remain committed to work with the committees, state parties, UN agency, OPD, CSO and Asean institutions include development partner to ensure the promise of the convention becomes a reality for all persons with disability.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair for this opportunity.
Thank you so much.
Now I invite the representative of Century the directs Uenos.
You have the floor.
Yes.
Good Chair, distinguished experts of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and everyone else.
We have two speakers, and I will start.
My name is Tors Mierma.
I'm the coordinator for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights CCHR for short.
This is an update on the latest development and handling of the drafted possible additional protocol to the Council of Europe's Ovio Convention.
That we now once again have to update on this is not because everything is going well, but we will end off with stating that there seemed to be a significant improved recognition of the COPD and acceptance of it among European states.
When reading the CRPD itself, the general comments, the guidelines and Article 14, et cetera, it should leave no doubt that the possible additional new protocol violates the text and the spirit of the CRPD.
But what we are facing in the Council of Europe is not objective thinking and factually considering international human rights law.
Following the unanimous vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 2026 that was rejecting the drafted additional protocol, the Secretariat of the council's decision making body, the Minister's deputies, commissioned a confidential study on the CRPD and its compatibility with the additional protocol.
This legal analysis, while it may not be openly stated, is meant to defend the possibility of a new additional protocol in violation of the COPD and undermining the paradigm shift that was initiated by it.
The commission legal analysis for this purpose does not consider all required UN documents on the CRPD.
The work on it was even kept secret from the COPD committee.
And this confidential text written by a single professor from the Potsdam University in Berlin concluded that the draft additional protocol cannot be regarded as being precluded by or running counter to the CRPD.
It was presented to the Council of Europe's Ministers deputies in May, prior to the deputies first meeting in this final stage of the review process.
Of course, a lot of advoc efforts was done by many groups prior to this meeting and the result was that at the 27 May meeting of the Minister's deputies, there was two widely opposing viewpoints on the additional protocol.
No final decisions could be made, and the only thing that was clear was that the drafted version of the additional protocol could not be approved as it was written.
The confidential text was then used to argue for a revision of the drafted additional protocol.
The purpose was not to align it with the CRPD, which is impossible.
But to reflect the reality of existing regulations in Europe on involuntary measures in psychiatry, with the view of strengthening the procedural safeguards.
Following heated discussions within the Minister's deputies, a vote was done on how to proceed.
Less than half of the 46 member states participated, and the result was that a dozen countries, just 26% of the member states of the council, then could dictate the future direction, which they envisioned as a revised additional protocol.
I will now turn the word over to my colleague from Cis, Spain.
She will introduce herself and continue.
President Madam Chair, I'm Elisa Tuilos.
I am the Director of Public Affairs of the Citizens Committee for Human Rights in Spain.
We defend and monitor human rights in the area of mental health.
This is officially recognized as a public interest entity by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
I would like to update you on what we have done.
The Secretariat of the Council of Europe, according to instructions, reviewed the text.
Any review which doesn't eradicate coercion is something which means that this additional protocol is not aligned with the CRPD.
There was a significant reaction during a debate on the 1st of July.
The declaration made by the committee was important for advocacy.
Our center contacted over 40 of the delegates to the Council of Europe so that they were aware of your statement.
Similarly, a coalition of 12 entities, demanded that the Council of Europe officially abandoned and definitively abandoned the additional protocol.
There was a second round of debate amongst ministers delegates on the reviewed protocol.
This was under strong pressure from the reiterated calls for rejection of the additional protocol by the CRPD and civil society.
It was not an easy debate, but we have seen significant change in points of view.
Ministerial delegates did not reach an agreement on the reviewed and revised protocol.
There are some countries that wish to continue discriminatory practices which could also be humiliating in the area of psychiatry.
But the most important news is that there appears to be a widespread consensus against the very idea of the additional protocol and in favor of the CRPD and civil society position.
They are contacting civil society supposedly to find a solution, but this hasn't happened yet.
There will be another ministerial meeting on the 7th of September, but advocacy must continue.
As part of civil society, we're going to step up our efforts and we hope that the outcome of all this will be reflected in the September meeting with a majority calling for rejection and removal of the additional protocol.
Thank you.
Thank you for all speakers.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Joseph Maria Soli Ibarra, advocate and Director General of Support.
Tirana, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Distinguished member of the committee, excellences, colleagues and friends.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this opening session.
I come from Girona in the northeast of Catalonia and I talk on behalf of Super Gena Foundation, a social service provider currently supporting more than 1,500 people with intellectual disabilities, psychosocial disabilities, and other situations requiring intensive support.
Super Girona may be a small example of transformation, an organization that comes from the data size of the force, if you allow me and has chosen to fully embrace CRPD values.
Today in Catalonia and in Spain, we have maybe the strongest combination of legislation aligned with Article 12 of CRPD, abolishing any limitation of legal capacity and guardianship, and at the same time, system of supported decision making social service provided by NGOs publicly funded.
In the case of Catalonia, Universal and offer to any people who have no family or social network able to provide that support.
But support, Your Honor was born before the convention in the context where guardianship was the dominant response and we inherit a system built around protection, substitution and institutional logic.
We began our transformation, of course, after the convention entered into force, but very especially after general comment number one, that gives us a lot of arguments and force and years before the today's legislation allied with Article 12 become possible.
Indeed, Super Genona was created 23 years ago with a mission linked to a successful closure of a psychiatric institution in Girona.
For the last 20 years in Girona, a region of 800,000 inhabitants, we have no psychiatric institution.
Yet, under the same legal framework, thousands of people in Catalonia and in Spain still live in a long stay psychiatric settings.
Gonna also has fewer hospital beds per inhabitant that almost anywhere in Europe.
We have just 80 for 800,000 while flexible and mobile community based mental health services support people and families in highly complex situations.
This has been only possible because an ecosystem in which social services, individualized support, housing, employment, prevention, early intervention are coordinated in a way that uncommon in many contexts.
At Support Ga, we are proud of this mental health ecosystem, not because it's perfect, but because it shows that another way of organizing support is possible.
Over the time and not without tension, we moved towards the right basic support model.
This was not simple a change of vo callri.
It required changing practices, procedures, relationship with families, with DPOs, with persons itself, cooperation with courts, with administrations, and above all, the way we understood power.
In fields like mental health, like has been expressed just before about what is behind the draft traditional protocol of the Vienna Convention, many minds are still based in practices against VRPV.
We have been fighting against that.
More recently, using WHO quality rights material, we have helped us to achieve greater preation and to see tangible changes.
We have many challenges ahead, especially to quarantine independent living, supported the schemes for persons with psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities with intensive support needs.
We are not alone.
As a board member of the ESPD, the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, I know thousands of managers and professionals working closely with DPOs and community stakeholders who are trying to move from successful pilot project tested thousands of times, aligned with CRPD for example, in the institutionalization or in supported living schemes to general policies that funds these schemes to make possible that everyone in needs have them available.
This is also a question of money.
Very often, public funding systems still reward institutional solution more than community based support.
This is my final message.
For millions of persons with disabilities without services available, rights are just nice words.
At the same time, there are thousands of professionals and non profit service providers ready to deliver support fully aligned with CRPD.
What they need now are not just changes legislation or more nice papers.
We need public policies and funding systems that make this transformation possible for everyone who needs it.
We are open for more business in that line.
Thank you for your work, members of the committee, we need your strong support.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I would like to thank all the distinguished speakers for your contribution and for joining the committee on this important occasion.
Well now proceed with Item one of the provisional agenda, namely the adoption of the agenda and the Program Award.
Those documents have been circulated and are available in the extra not of the committee and on the committee's web page.
If there is no objection, I declare the agenda and the program of the work adapted.
Now we have come to the end of public opening of the 35th session.
I thank all participants.
We will now take a short 5 minutes break and being in a closed meeting for the briefing on Qatar.
Thank you so much.