EUD and WFD joint submission on the outline of the General Comment Article 27

marzec 26, 2021

Uwagi ogólne, KONWENCJA ONZ O PRAWACH DZIECKA

As part of the process of drafting a General Comment on Art. 27 of the Convention, the right to work and employment the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD Committee launched a call for written submissions. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities invited States parties to the UN CRPD Convention, United Nations entities and specialized agencies, other United Nations human rights mechanisms, non-governmental organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, and other interested stakeholders to participate in the general discussion and to provide with written submissions on the draft General Comment on Art. 27 of the Convention.

EUD together with the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) took the opportunity to participate in this consultation process and provided the Committee with a joint submission. WFD and the EUD highlighted that deaf people face a unique situation compared to other persons with disabilities due to their specific cultural and linguistic identities and their use of national sign languages.

Among many other recommendations, EUD and WFD emphasised that while the funding and presence of professional and accredited national sign language interpreters remain the essential elements of the reasonable accommodation for deaf persons in the labour market in light of the Article 2 combined with the Article 9.2(e) of the Convention, for deaf people to fully exercise their linguistic human rights to participate in and contribute to the labour market, the accessibility and inclusion of the labour market itself through national sign languages must be guaranteed. This could be realised through fostering the opportunities to participate in the labour market directly in a national sign language and ensuring that sign language working environments are provided.

To find out more about the recommendations and input made by EUD and WFD please find the joint submission here.