A/HRC/40/54 80. States should establish outreach and flexible mechanisms to enable the effective participation of groups of persons with disabilities disproportionately targeted by deprivation of liberty on the basis of impairment, as they may be inadequately represented by existing representative organizations (A/HRC/31/62). 58 States should also promote collaboration and partnerships between public authorities and civil society organizations, including representative organizations of persons with disabilities, in the area of the provision of support. G. Capacity-building and awareness-raising 81. Changes to legal and policy frameworks will not be sufficient, unless accompanied by a major shift in the societal perception of persons with disabilities. States must complement law and policy reform efforts with training and awareness-raising activities for authorities, public officials, service providers, the private sector, media, persons with disabilities, families and the general public. 82. There is an urgent need to shift the public narrative about violence and persons with psychosocial disabilities. States must adopt effective measures to combat stereotypes, negative attitudes and harmful and involuntary practices against persons with disabilities. Higher education centres should review their curricula, particularly within the schools of medicine, law and social work; to ensure that their curricula adequately reflect the innovations of the Convention. H. Resource mobilization 83. States must stop funding services that deprive persons of their liberty on the basis of impairment. Involuntary commitment and institutionalization are not only wrong but also represent an unnecessary and ineffective use of public resources. Evidence demonstrates that providing adequate support to persons with disabilities is a much more successful and cost-effective option than putting them in institutions of any kind. 59 Moreover, compulsory admission to psychiatric facilities and other institutions exposes Governments to expensive safeguards systems, as well as protracted and expensive litigation. 84. States have an obligation to take immediate steps, making full use of their available resources, including those made available through international cooperation, to ensure that persons with disabilities have their right to personal liberty respected and protected. State’s planning and budgeting should incorporate funding for disability-specific support services, as well monitoring. International cooperation should refrain from funding practices contrary to the human rights-based approach to disability (e.g., institutionalization or coercive psychiatric interventions). VII. Conclusions and recommendations 85. The deprivation of liberty on the basis of impairment is a human rights violation on a massive scale. Persons with disabilities are systematically placed into institutions and psychiatric facilities, or detained at home and other community settings, based on the existence or presumption of having an impairment. They are also overrepresented in traditional places of deprivation of liberty, such as prisons, immigration detention centres, juvenile detention facilities and children’s residential institutions. In all these settings, they are exposed to additional human rights violations, such as forced treatment, seclusion and restraints. 58 59 18 See also Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 7 (2018) on the participation of persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention. D. Tobis, Moving from Residential Institutions to Community-based Services in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2000).