A/HRC/22/25 related issues; and can access accountability mechanisms through which to challenge alleged discrimination. 43. States have an important role to play in specifying the components of just and favourable conditions of work in their legislation, including equal remuneration for work of equal value and the right to a safe and healthy working environment, and in ensuring that legislation covers equality for persons with disabilities in all these areas. B. Access to technical and vocational training and rehabilitation 44. The Convention requires States parties to enable persons with disabilities to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training. Education, training and continuous learning are central pillars of the right to work. This is also often the first stage at which persons with disabilities fall behind in opportunities related to access to, and advancement in, employment. 45. The Convention also imposes on States the duty to promote vocational and professional rehabilitation, job retention and return-to-work programmes for persons with disabilities. ILO Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention (No. 159) defines the purpose of vocational rehabilitation as being to enable a person with a disability to secure, retain and advance in suitable employment and thereby to further such person's integration or reintegration into society (art. 1, para. 2). In many countries, employees who acquire disabilities do not have access to vocational rehabilitation and return-to-work programmes, which translates into challenges in terms of returning to working life. States should put in place, and enforce, job retention laws or provisions in employment laws which ensure that workers who acquire a disability have the right to continue the same job with their employer, return to work after a period of absence, or be assigned to another job within the company. 46. The creation of a vocational training and rehabilitation environment that is conducive for and inclusive of persons with disabilities obligates States parties to take the necessary steps, including through legislation, to: (a) Recognize, through legislation, that persons with disabilities have a right to access technical and vocational guidance, services and programmes on an equal basis with others; (b) Ensure that mainstream vocational training programmes do not discriminate against persons with disabilities, that they are fully accessible to persons with disabilities, and that reasonable accommodation in technical and vocational training is provided; (c) Consider mainstreaming disability-related issues into technical and vocational training programmes, with a view to creating an inclusive environment that promotes diversity; (d) Ensure that rehabilitation programmes adequately take into account the needs of persons with disabilities. 47. Many countries have developed technical and vocational training strategies for persons with disabilities. Often, however, such training tends to take place in separate settings and frequently addresses skills and activities that are not demanded by the labour market and guided by low expectations in terms of what persons with disabilities can do. Consequently, persons with disabilities may be trained for many years without any expectation of inclusion in the open labour market. 12