Geneva, 9 July 2020- The Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary presented her report on the issue of persons with disabilities in the context of internal displacement at the 44th session of the Human Rights Council.
The report highlights how internally displaced persons with disabilities face multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination based on grounds such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, group affiliation and displacement itself.
The report also stresses how the current lack of accurate and disaggregated data on the situation of persons with disabilities living in the context of displacement is a significant challenge in ensuring their situation and needs are addressed in responses to displacement situations.
In response to the report of the Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons, GANRHI Chairperson, Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera, today in a video-statement at the Human Rights Council said that “National Human Rights Institutions’ broad human rights mandate and functions, their unique understanding of local situations, their access to different types of actors and partners, their ability to mediate between government and communities, and their ability to intervene where violations of human rights occur make them a unique and invaluable partner in this regard”.
He added that National Human Rights Institutions can also play a role in collecting comprehensive data about numbers, profiles, barriers and the specific requirements of persons with disabilities in displacement contexts.
GANHRI’s close cooperation with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons includes:
- Co-hosting global and cross-regional consultations with National Human Rights Institutions, to discuss experiences, challenges and practices as they work on protecting and promoting the rights of internally displaced persons, and the development of a joint Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions on internal displacement.
- Co-hosting a GANHRI and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees webinar on “protecting forcibly displaced persons in the COVID-19 context: the role and experiences of National Human Rights Institutions and collaboration opportunities with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees” with the participation of the Special Rapporteur, Cecilia Jimenez, and more than 200 representatives of National Human Rights Institutions and staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees worldwide.
GANHRI Chairperson will also intervene later in the day via video statement during the dialogue with the Working Group on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises. For further information: info@ganhri.org