A/HRC/34/26 77. According to article 5 (4) of the Convention, specific measures to achieve de facto equality go beyond “affirmative actions”. States parties should take specific measures to address inequalities and to combat discrimination, particularly structural discrimination. They should, in addition, provide effective monitoring tools and remedies to improve the enforcement of these specific measures. 78. Persons with disabilities are subject to all kinds of discrimination. The Convention expands on previous human rights treaties and includes denial of reasonable accommodation and discrimination by association as forms of discrimination on the basis of disability. States parties should ensure protection against all kinds of discrimination by domesticating the Convention in national law; providing tools and guidelines to implement its innovative aspects; empowering persons with disabilities with regard to their rights; building the capacity of public officials, including judges and monitoring agents; and ensuring effective remedies and proper redress and reparation to victims of discrimination. 79. The innovative aspect of the Convention on reasonable accommodation must not be confused with other concepts, such as accessibility, specific measures, or support and procedural accommodation. Reasonable accommodation requires further development in international human rights law. Existing national practices should allow the identification of some elements that could contribute to its implementation. States should improve or adopt legal and regulatory frameworks that clearly identify those responsible for providing accommodation in all areas of the law; provide guidelines and protocols for their implementation; assure flexibility in their policies and budgets to accommodate specific requests; and lay out appropriate procedures and criteria to assess when a requested accommodation imposes a “disproportionate or undue burden”, ensuring a case-by-case approach. Reasonable accommodation funds might prove useful to ensure appropriate funding, when required. 80. The collection of disaggregated data (including on cases on discrimination, to inform human rights indicators) is crucial to monitor the equality of, and discrimination against, persons with disabilities – and, in particular, to identify situations of systemic discrimination. States should develop national human rights indicators under the Convention and disaggregate data by, inter alia, age, gender and impairment, to assess implementation of the Convention. 81. Independent monitoring mechanisms and/or national human rights institutions can play a pivotal role in promoting equality of and non-discrimination against persons with disabilities, in particular by raising awareness, providing technical guidance and capacity-building to persons with disabilities, public officials, judges and legal professionals and other stakeholders. States should provide them with appropriate resources and ensure their independence in order to fulfil their mandates and to facilitate access to justice. 82. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents a unique opportunity to reduce inequality for persons with disabilities and to ensure their inclusion and participation. States and stakeholders must ensure that the principles of equality and non-discrimination for persons with disabilities are implemented in a cross-cutting way in all goals. International cooperation should both mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities and increase disability-specific funds, implementing disability markers to monitor the implementation of programmes. 18

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents