Working Group on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Working Group
The Working Group was established at the GANHRI Bureau meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco on 8 and 9 October 2018.
The GANHRI Bureau issued its decision to establish the Working Group at the GANHRI Bureau meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco in 2018. This followed the recommendation to establish the Working Group made by the caucus meeting of NHRIs participating at the 11th Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP) that took place on 14 June 2018 in New York, USA.
The NHRI attendees at the caucus meeting agreed that a framework for cooperation and coordination among NHRIs on the rights of persons with disability would add value to their and other NHRIs’ work on disability at the domestic level.
In addition, the rights of Persons with Disabilities is one of the priority areas of the current GANHRI Strategic Plan and of the UNDP-GANHRI-OHCHR Tripartite Partnership.
Purpose
The Working Group facilitates the exchange of knowledge, experiences and good practices among NHRIs across all regions as regards:
1. their work promoting the implementation of the Convention at the national level;
2. the monitoring of the Convention at the national level, including the role of NHRIs appointed as Independent Monitoring Mechanisms under article 33(2) of the Convention; and collaboration between IMM and NHRI that are not appointed as IMM and
3. their work collectively promoting the implementation of the Convention at an international level where opportunities for collaboration and influence exist.
4. GANHRIs specific commitments and work priorities regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.
Composition
The Working Group is chaired by New Zealand and composed of the following NHRIs:
-South Africa
-Kenya
-Morocco
-Canada
-El Salvador
-New Zealand
-Philippines
-Georgia
-Finland
-Colombia