RES/28/4 The right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community on an equal basis with others

GE.15-07196 (E)



Human Rights Council Twenty-eighth session

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

28/4. The right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be

included in the community on an equal basis with others

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional

Protocol thereto,

Recalling also the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness

of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the need for persons with disabilities to

be guaranteed the full enjoyment of their rights and freedoms without discrimination,

Reaffirming all of its previous resolutions on the rights of persons with disabilities,

the most recent of which was resolution 25/20 of 28 March 2014, and welcoming the

efforts of all stakeholders to implement those resolutions,

Recalling in particular that article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons

with Disabilities reaffirms the right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be

included in the community on an equal basis with others, and provides that, with a view to

realizing this right without discrimination, States parties shall take effective and appropriate

measures to facilitate the full inclusion and participation in the community of persons with

disabilities,

Recalling the general principles reflected in the Convention, namely respect for

inherent dignity, individual autonomy and independence, and full and effective

participation and inclusion in society,

Emphasizing that the enjoyment of the right to living independently and being

included in the community on an equal basis with others is closely linked to the enjoyment

of the full range of human rights by persons with disabilities,

Recognizing that progress has been made, yet deeply concerned that many persons

with disabilities in all regions continue to face significant obstacles in exercising their right

to live independently and be included in the community on an equal basis with others,

Emphasizing that access to physical environment, transportation, information and

communications, including information and communications technology, and other services

and facilities provided to public are a key to independent, autonomous living and equal

participation in society for persons with disabilities,

Welcoming the work undertaken by the task force on secretariat services,

accessibility for persons with disabilities and use of information technology of the Human

Rights Council, and encouraging it to report orally to the Council on the progress made on

the full implementation of the recommendations contained in its reports1 and its future

work,

Deeply concerned at the negative impact of laws or practices on the rights of persons

with disabilities that deprive them of their legal capacity or allow for their forced

institutionalization on the basis of a real or perceived disability,

Deeply concerned also that girls and women of all ages with disabilities are subject

to multiple, aggravated or intersecting forms of discrimination, and bearing in mind the

particular risk of segregation, violence and abuse against women and girls with disabilities,

Noting the ongoing preparations for the post-2015 development agenda and its

consideration of persons with disabilities in both the report of the Open Working Group of

the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals2 and the report of the Secretary-

General entitled “A life of dignity for all: accelerating progress towards the Millennium

Development Goals and advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015”,A/68/202.

Recalling the high-level meeting of the General Assembly held on 23 September

2013 on disability and development and its outcome document,General Assembly resolution 68/3

Welcoming the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with

disabilities, and her report,A/HRC/28/58.

1. Welcomes the fact that, to date, 159 States have signed and 151 States and

one regional integration organization have ratified or acceded to the Convention on the

Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and that 92 States have signed and 85 States have

ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention, and calls upon those States

and regional integration organizations that have not yet ratified or acceded to the

Convention and the Optional Protocol to consider doing so as a matter of priority;

2. Encourages States that have ratified the Convention and have submitted one

or more reservations to it to initiate a process to review regularly the effect and continued

relevance of such reservations, and to consider the possibility of withdrawing them;

3. Welcomes the thematic study on the right of persons with disabilities to live

independently and be included in the community prepared by the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,A/HRC/28/37. and calls upon all stakeholders to consider

its findings and recommendations with a view to their implementation, where appropriate;

4. Calls upon States that are not yet party to the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities to ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively and fully

1 A/HRC/21/CRP.1, A/HRC/23/CRP.A/68/970. .

enjoy the right to living independently and being included in the community on an equal

basis with others;

5. Calls upon States parties to the Convention to take effective and appropriate

measures to facilitate the full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of the right to live

independently and be included in the community on an equal basis with others, and urges

States parties, in furtherance of this objective to, inter alia:

(a) Guarantee equal recognition before the law of persons with disabilities and

ensure that they have the opportunity to exercise control over their lives on an equal basis

with others;

(b) Prevent isolation or segregation from the community of persons with

disabilities, and in that regard take further measures towards their deinstitutionalization;

(c) Provide persons with disabilities with access to a range of support services

that are responsive to their individual choices, wishes and needs, including for their

deinstitutionalization;

6. Urges States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination

against women and girls with disabilities and to promote gender equality in order to ensure

the equal enjoyment of their rights, in particular to live independently and be fully included

and participate in the community on an equal basis with others;

7. Encourages States to engage in international cooperation efforts aimed at

enhancing their national capacities to guarantee fully the right of persons with disabilities to

live independently and be included in the community on an equal basis with others, and

invites the Office of the High Commissioner and relevant United Nations agencies to

consider ways to foster international cooperation activities in this regard;

8. Recognizes the importance of international cooperation and its promotion in

support of national efforts to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, including the

right to live independently and be included in the community on an equal basis with others

without discrimination, in this regard encourages the mobilization of public and private

resources on a sustainable basis to mainstream disability in development, and underlines the

need to promote and strengthen international cooperation at all levels, the exchange of good

practices and partnerships for disability-inclusive development;

9. Calls upon States to ensure that all international cooperation is inclusive of

persons with disabilities and does not contribute to creating new barriers for them;

10. Also calls upon States to consider becoming party to the Marrakesh Treaty to

Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or

Otherwise Print Disabled;

11. Decides that its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with

disabilities will be held at its thirty-first session and that it will focus on article 11 of the

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on situations of risk and

humanitarian emergencies, and will have international sign interpretation and captioning;

12. Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare its annual study on

the rights of persons with disabilities on article 11 of the Convention, on situations of risk

and humanitarian emergencies, and in consultation with States and other relevant

stakeholders, regional organizations, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with

disabilities, civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities,

and national human rights institutions, requiring contributions to be submitted in an

accessible format, and requests that such stakeholder contributions, and the study and an

easy-to-read-version of it, be made available on the website of the Office, in an accessible

format, prior to the thirty-first session of the Human Rights Council;

13. Also decides to make the resolution on the rights of persons with disabilities

biennial as of the thirty-first session, with its subsequent consideration at the thirty-seventh

session;

14. Urges States to consider further integrating and mainstreaming the

perspective and rights of persons with disabilities into the work of the Human Rights

Council;

15. Encourages representative organizations of persons with disabilities, civil

society, national monitoring bodies and human rights institutions to participate actively in

the debate referred to in paragraph 11 above and in regular and special sessions of the

Human Rights Council and its working groups;

16. Invites the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities to consider, in accordance with its mandate, the outcome

document of the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Sendai, Japan, in

March 2015, in relation to article 11 of the Convention;

17. Requests the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner and United Nations

offices to continue the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the

accessibility of facilities and services of the United Nations system, also taking into account

relevant provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and

underlines that the Human Rights Council, including its Internet resources, should be fully

accessible to persons with disabilities;

18. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that the work of the

Office of the High Commissioner with respect to the rights of persons with disabilities and

the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are adequately resourced for the

fulfilment of their tasks.

55th meeting

26 March 2015

[Adopted without a vote.]