A/HRC/34/26
recurring to courts. States should provide them with appropriate resources, 41 ensuring their
effectiveness and accessibility.42 Mediation and conciliation mechanisms could serve as an
effective tool, and should provide appropriate redress for victims of discrimination.
73.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has requested States
parties to collect and disseminate disaggregated data on case law on discrimination,
including that involving multiple and intersectional discrimination. 43 This complaint-based
information is helpful in assessing outcomes of complaint mechanisms and in identifying
trends in discrimination, and should to be broadly disseminated (as in Mexico and
Belgium). Most cases of discrimination, however, go unnoticed and are not registered
owing to a lack of awareness of rights and of access to justice. Further studies, both
quantitative and qualitative, are therefore required in order to assess and combat
discrimination against persons with disabilities (as has been done in Spain and Argentina).
74.
States should ensure the availability and accessibility of legal remedies, and of
effective reparation and redress for victims of discrimination. Lawyers, judges and agents
of justice should be targeted in capacity-building efforts to ensure their understanding of the
human rights-based approach to disability, particularly of the unconditional application of
the principle of non-discrimination to persons with disabilities. Remedies should aim at
changing attitudes towards persons with disabilities, and steps must be taken to ensure that
persons with disabilities are able to seek injunctions and can receive damages. 44 Remedial
schemes should also address the aggravated nature of multiple and intersectional
discrimination. Class or collective actions or similar judicial procedures are useful tools to
raise awareness and address situations of structural discrimination. States should consider
providing favourable frameworks with broad legal standing.
75.
In addition, States should waive or reduce costs of lawsuits and take other measures
to ensure that persons with disabilities can initiate a claim before the courts. 45 Eligibility
criteria for reducing or waiving schemes should not have a negative impact on persons with
disabilities; for example, if an income threshold is established as a criterion, it should
exclude disability-related benefits from the calculation in order to avoid conflict with social
protection ends.
V. Conclusions and recommendations
76.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities takes an innovative
approach to the principles of equality and non-discrimination in international human
rights law. It lays out a powerful vision of substantive equality, calling for action to
transform current societal structures, systems and conceptions. States should, in
consultation with persons with disabilities, adopt laws and policies in accordance with
the Convention to reduce inequalities, including by facilitating accessibility, working
actively to change negative perceptions and attitudes, and providing for inclusive
environments. They should ensure the exercise of enabling rights– such as the right to
equal recognition before the law, to education and to employment – which are the key
to achieving substantive equality.
41
42
43
44
45
CRPD/C/KOR/CO/1, para. 12; CRPD/C/GTM/CO/1, para. 18.
CRPD/C/BOL/CO/1, para. 12.
CRPD/C/DNK/CO/1, para. 17.
CRPD/C/BEL/CO/1, para. 12.
CRPD/C/KOR/CO/1, para. 12.
17
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