A/HRC/34/26 29. At the international level, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its general comment No. 5 (1994) on persons with disabilities, introduced “denial of reasonable accommodation based on disability” as a form of discrimination, cross-cutting to all rights recognized by the International Covenant. At the European level, it was enshrined in article 5 of European Union Directive 2000/78/EC, limited to the right to employment, which has been a matter for interpretation by the European Court of Justice. 20 These two precedents also had an impact on negotiations on the Convention itself. 30. Article 2 of the Convention defines reasonable accommodation as the “necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Other United Nations treaty bodies,21 the European Court of Human Rights, 22 the European Court of Justice23 and various national legislations as in Peru, Belgium and Finland have referred to or included this concept. 31. “Disproportionate or undue burden” should be understood as a single concept that sets the limit of the duty to provide reasonable accommodation. “Disproportionate” and “undue” should be considered synonyms. National practices at the moment of the adoption of the Convention employed different terms, such as “disproportionate burden”, “undue burden” or “undue hardship”, to refer to the same idea: the possible excessive weight of the requested accommodation on the entity responsible for providing it. The adopted draft was the result of an agreement among Member States to ensure that the concept could be related to different national uses. 32. Reasonable accommodation should not be confused with “specific measures”, including “affirmative action measures” or the like. While specific measures and affirmative action imply a preferential treatment of persons with disabilities over others, reasonable accommodation aims at providing an individual with a disability with the necessary and appropriate adjustment or modification for the enjoyment of a specific right, to avoid discrimination. 33. Reasonable accommodation should not be confused with accessibility.24 Accessibility duties relate to groups, imply progressive implementation and are unconditional, that is, they are not subject to a proportionality test. Instead, reasonable accommodation is individualized, applies immediately to all rights and is limited by its disproportionality. Making transportation, public and private buildings or other facilities communicational and physically accessible takes time. In the meantime, reasonable accommodation “can be used as a means of ensuring accessibility for an individual”.25 For instance, service providers (such as hospitals or restaurants) should gradually make their facilities and services accessible, and in the meantime they should be prepared to provide reasonable accommodation immediately (for example, have a removable ramp as a reasonable accommodation). 34. Along the same lines, reasonable accommodation should not be confused with provision of support. Different rights may require the provision of support, for example, a support teacher in education, personal assistance under the right to live independently and be included in the community, or support to exercise legal capacity. As support systems or 20 21 22 23 24 25 See European Court of Justice, Chacón Navas v Eurest Colectividades SA, Decision of 11 July 2006. See for example CEDAW/C/HUN/CO/7–8, para. 29 (c), and CRC/C/DEU/CO/3–4, para. 51 (b). See Çam v Turkey, paras. 38, 65 and 67. For example, Ring v Denmark, paras. 5, 30–32, 53. See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 2 (2014), para. 26. Ibid. 9