A/HRC/31/62 56. Representative organizations of persons with disabilities should build collaborative relationships with other actors, including CSOs from other sectors, NGOs, human rights defenders, providers of services, political parties, multilateral organizations and international cooperation agencies, to work collectively for respect of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities. Collaboration requires a common understanding of the human rights-based approach to disability, thus avoiding charity-based and paternalistic approaches. The rights of persons with disabilities are not “disabilityspecific” rights but universal human rights that apply to all human beings. 57. There are various types of cooperation that representative organizations of persons with disabilities engage in, such as promoting the mainstreaming of the rights of persons with disabilities in advocacy initiatives conducted by other groups subject to exclusion and discrimination, such as indigenous people or older persons. This approach is of particular importance since persons with disabilities have often been invisible and excluded from nondisability-specific discussions and processes.41 Furthermore, representative organizations of persons with disabilities can benefit from the strengths and experience of other civil society movements to strengthen the disability movement. 7. Women and girls with disabilities 58. Because women and girls with disabilities have historically encountered many barriers to participation in public decision-making, due to power imbalances and multiple forms of discrimination, they have had fewer opportunities to establish or join organizations that can represent their needs as women and persons with disabilities. Consequently, despite the widespread human rights violations affecting them, the intersectionality between gender and disability-based issues is still not fully included in the work of the different stakeholders promoting the rights of persons with disabilities or the rights of women. Acknowledging this situation, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires States to take all appropriate measures to ensure their full development, advancement and empowerment. States must take steps to eliminate the barriers that prevent their participation in public decision-making and must ensure that all participatory mechanisms and bodies take into account both disability- and gender-related factors and the complex interrelationships between them. 59. States should reach out directly to women and girls with disabilities, especially when cultural and social backgrounds make it unsafe for them to participate in open consultations. States must also establish adequate measures to guarantee that the perspectives of women and girls with disabilities are fully taken into account and that they will not suffer any reprisals for expressing their viewpoints and concerns, especially in relation to sexual and reproductive rights, gender-based violence and sexual violence. 8. Inclusiveness 60. States must promote the participation of persons with disabilities across all population groups, including those historically discriminated against or disadvantaged, such as indigenous people, poor or rural-based persons, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, and others. States must also ensure that the voices of persons with disabilities from throughout the life cycle are heard (particularly those of children, adolescents and older persons) and from across the whole range of impairments and experiences of disability (including deaf persons, autistic persons, deafblind persons, and persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities). 41 See A/HRC/28/58, para. 21 (d). 15