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Supporting NHRIs to advance the rights of people with disabilities

Graphic: Female trainee graduates from an ILO-sponsored program for women and people with disabilities

The APF has published a series of fact sheets to support NHRIs in their work to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities.

Asia Pacific Forum LogoAsia Pacific Forum

Ahead of the UN's flagship annual meeting on human rights and disabilities in New York, the APF has published a series of fact sheets to support national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in their work to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities.

The fact sheets provide a concise, plain language introduction to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

They also look at the specific role of NHRIs to monitor implementation of the Convention, as well as how NHRIs can use their mandate to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities.

The fact sheets also provide practice tips for NHRIs on


Graphic: Students with a disability at a primary school in Nuku’alofa, Tonga


"Because of their unique role and position, NHRIs have the opportunity to make a powerful contribution to bring about positive change for people with disabilities," said Kieren Fitzpatrick, Director of the APF secretariat.

"These fact sheets provide NHRIs with practical strategies to help make the rights set out in the Convention a reality for individuals and communities across the Asia Pacific," he said.

"Of course, this work must be done in partnership with people with disabilities and civil society groups."

The fact sheets draw on the key themes in the APF publication, Human Rights and Disability: A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions.


National institutions need to respect the principle that people with disabilities brought to the drafting of the Convention; nothing about us, without us.

UN human rights treaty bodies Logo Rosemary Kayess, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Governments, civil society organisations and NHRIs met in New York from 12-14 June 2018 for the 11th Session of the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The theme of this year's session was: "Leaving no one behind through the full implementation of the CRPD".

Many NHRIs been designated as the independent national monitoring mechanism under article 33(2) of the Convention.

Accordingly, NHRIs participating at the conference shared their experiences to monitor progress in the implementation of the Convention in their respective countries.

Importantly, NHRIs described the steps they have taken to ensure that people with disabilities play a key role in these monitoring activities; for example by having people with disabilities in their monitoring teams and by ensuring that the voices of people with disabilities are central in determining the extent to which their rights respected in practice.

Date: 8 June 2018


Image credits

  1. Female trainee graduates from an ILO-sponsored program for women and people with disabilities - ILO/Sarah-Jane Saltmarsh, Flickr; http://bit.ly/2GXHH8g
  2. Students with a disability at a primary school in Nuku’alofa, Tonga - Connor Ashleigh/AusAID, Flickr CC