humanrightswatchsubmissiontothecrpdcommittee.docVIP

Human Rights Watch Submission to the CRPD Committee: General Recommendation on Article 9 of the Convention—Accessibility February 24, 2014 Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) for its General Recommendation on accessibility. This submission draws from research we have conducted in India, Nepal, Peru, Russia, Uganda, Ghana, and China. This submission focuses on the following aspects of accessibility: Access to the physical environment; Accessibility of mainstream schools; Voting and participation in the electoral process; Access to healthcare services, including gender and sexual violence services and shelters; and Presence and effectiveness of independent monitoring of facilities and services open to the public and the involvement of people with disabilities in both the implementation and monitoring of these facilities and services. This document does not review every accessibility issue relevant to the abovementioned topics. Rather, it underscores several concerns that figured most prominently in our research, and that significantly influence the degree to which persons with disabilities are able to exercise other rights, such as the right to education, the right to live independently and be included in their communities, and the right to work, among others. As the CRPD Committee notes, accessibility is an essential pre-condition for the enjoyment by persons with disabilities of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. As such, we stress the inherent interdependence and linkages between Article 9 on accessibility and other provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the need for a holistic interpretation of the Convention. 1. Access to the Physical Environment Physical barriers often limit the degree to which persons with disabilities can exercise their rights to mobility, education, employme