A/HRC/28/37 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 25/20, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a study on the right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community (art. 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), in consultation with States and other relevant stakeholders, regional organizations, the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development, civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities, and national human rights institutions. The Council requested that the study be made available on the OHCHR website, in an accessible format, prior to the twenty-eighth session of the Council. 2. OHCHR solicited contributions from Member States, regional organizations, civil society organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities, the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development and national human rights institutions, requesting responses to a set of questions concerning existing legislation and policies enabling persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community. OHCHR received 27 responses from States, 12 from national human rights institutions and 16 from civil society organizations and other stakeholders. The full texts of all submissions received are available on the OHCHR website.1 II. The right to live independently and be included in the community 3. Persons with disabilities are often presumed to be unable to live independently. That presumption is based on misconceptions, including that they lack the ability to make sound decisions for themselves and that, therefore, society needs to protect them. This approach, practised in many countries for a long time, has deprived persons with disabilities of the opportunity to choose where and with whom to live and to determine their own future. 4. In article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the States parties to the Convention recognized the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community, with choices equal to others. The foundation of that right is the core human rights principle that all humans are born equal in dignity and rights, and that all life is of equal worth. On those grounds, persons with disabilities have claimed the right to participate in all areas of mainstream community living, arguing that the capacity of all individuals to make choices in that regard must be acknowledged and enabled. Knowing their own needs best, persons with disabilities have sought control over options to choose, requesting that community services be made available to them on an equal basis with others. That approach has gradually been introduced in the laws and policies of some countries. 5. Those changes in approach are causes and consequences of the transition from a medical and charity approach to disability, whereby persons with disabilities were seen as passive objects of care, to a human rights-based approach. The latter approach takes the view that it is the society that must accommodate human diversity and enable persons with disabilities, among others, to be an active part of it. An important milestone in the process was the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, which established an obligation for States parties to take effective and appropriate measures 1 www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disability/Pages/LiveIndependently.aspx. 3