Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Day of General Discussion
on "The Right to Accessibility"
7 October 2010
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 by the UN General Assembly. The Convention and its Optional Protocol entered into force on 3 May 2008. So far, the Convention has acquired 145 signatories and 87 states parties.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the body of independent experts responsible for reviewing progress made by States parties in implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, during its first session, decided to devote its 2010 Day of General Discussion (DGD) on 07 October 2010 to article 9 and other relevant articles of the Convention dealing with the right to accessibility.
The purpose of the Days of General Discussion is to foster a deeper understanding of the contents and implications of the Convention as they relate to specific articles or topics. Representatives of Governments, United Nations human rights mechanisms, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions as well as individual experts and children are welcome to take part.
The 2010 Day of General Discussion is intended to provide States and other actors with more comprehensive guidance as to their obligations to promote and protect the right to Accessibility as outlined in article 9 and other relevant articles of the Convention.
Given the complexity of the concepts and issues involved, and in order to facilitate the exchange of views between participants and Committee members, the discussion will be held in three separate sessions based on the following topics in order to focus the discussions (please refer to the outline for more details on the topics and sub-topics):
Session 1: The right to access on an equal basis with others to the physical environment and transportation;
Session 2: The right to access on an equal basis with others to virtual and material information and communications;
Session 3: Discussion of the best practices on the implementation and promotion of the Right to Accessibility.
The Committee will hold a day of general discussion each year. Please refer to the guidelines for information on registration and participation.
Submission of written contributions
The Committee encourages the submission of written contributions or case studies that reflect the different challenges in implementing the Right to Accessibility. Such contributions can be devoted to one or more of the following subtopics, or any other, provided that the submissions remain within the framework of the issues codified under Article 9.
a) The right to access on an equal basis with others to the physical environment and transportation
- New proposals for the elimination of obstacles and barriers to physical accessibility.
- Definition of international indicators of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public.
- Defining the concept of "Universal design".
- Measures concerning the provision of appropriate means of transportation.
- Reservations to Article 9.
b) The right to access on an equal basis with others to information and communications
- According to Article 30 (3), States Parties shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that laws protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials; examine the possibility of copyright exceptions for visual impaired people.
- Developing inclusive policies for persons with disabilities to access virtual and material information and knowledge.
- Developing concrete and specific international indicators (standards) concerning virtual and material web accessibility, regarding computers and mobile phones.
- International cooperation and partnerships for the purposes of communication accessibility.
- Raising awareness about existing opportunities for persons with disabilities.
c) Discussion of the best practices on the implementation and promotion of the Right to Accessibility
- Implementation and fulfillment of the Right to Accessibility.
- Scope of the Right to Accessibility and its linkage with other rights.
- The challenges of the effective implementation of the obligations arising under Article 9 and practical measures to provide training for stakeholders on evaluating accessibility.
- The role of independent monitoring bodies.
Please see attached Outline for suggested issues for review under each item.
Authors of written contributions are encouraged to present a maximum of five suggestions on the Right to Accessibility for the recommendations to be adopted by the Committee following the Day of General Discussion. The suggestions, which should be attached to the submission as an annex, must be directly relevant to the topic of the Day of General Discussion as described above. Although the main working language of the Committee is English, written contributions can also be submitted in French, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Russian.
The deadline for the submission of written contributions is 05 September 2010. The Committee requests that written contributions be limited to a maximum of 2500 words. Written contributions will be forwarded and posted on the CRPD website. Previously published materials may also be submitted to the Committee, or distributed during the Day of General Discussion to other participants (with indication of source of first publication). Sufficient copies must be brought along, as the Secretariat does not have resources for reproduction and distribution. Copies of written statements to the Committee may be distributed by participants during the Day of General Discussion.
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