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European Union reviewed by the CRPD Committee – What happens at the conference in Geneva?

Last week, Europe’s disability movement closely followed the UN review of the EU’s progress on disability rights. Five years after its last evaluation, the EU was once again assessed by the UN CRPD Committee on how well it upholds the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).

You can watch the conference here and read a summary here.

Concluding observations.

Freddy Jussien, Advocacy Lead at Inclusion Europe, was in Geneva and gives us an inside look at the conference.

Months of work in preparation

The process began long before the official conference. The European Disability Forum (EDF) coordinated input from disability organisations (Inclusion Europe among them), to provide the UN CRPD Committee with a reality check on the situation in Europe.

Inclusion Europe contribution to the report showed some stark facts:

  • Over 800,000 people with intellectual disabilities live in large institutions across the EU.
  • Legal capacity can still be fully removed in 8 countries and partially removed in 15 — leaving many unable to vote in EU elections.
  • Too few people with intellectual disabilities work, learn, or train within EU institutions.

Ahead of the Geneva conference, Soufiane El Amrani, a self-advocate and accessibility expert, raised these concerns directly with the UN CRPD Committee.

Behind the scene in Geneva

While the EU presented its official report, disability advocates (including Freddy on behalf of Inclusion Europe) were busy behind the scenes, holding meetings with CRPD Committee members before both sessions.

Their goal? To ensure the Committee members had the full picture.

Governments like to talk about their progress and show only the positivies. These informal discussions help the Committee get the full picture, and be better prepared to ask targeted questions.

For example, the EU promoted its €1.7 billion investment in community-based services — but failed to mention that 1.5 million people still live in institutions, or that institutions continue to receive EU funding. Thanks to the delegation’s input, the Committee challenged this contradiction.

What happens next?

The UN CRPD Committee will now issue Concluding observations — a report summarising the situation and providing recommendations.

We will inform you about them when the report is published.