CRPD Review on EU Part Two

Today is the second day of the EU review of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. Yesterday, the review started with representative from the EU Agency of Fundamental Rights and the European Ombudsman describing the EU Framework and how the EU institutions are working to monitor the implementation of the UN Convention. Then the dialogue meeting continued with questions from the CRPD Committee to the European Commission, represented by Director General for Employment, Inclusion and Social Affairs, Michel Servoz. The Committee asked questions when the European Accessibility Act will be released, how the work with the EU Disability Strategy will continue and how the right to social assistance to ensure freedom of movement applies for all citizens including persons with disabilities.

Today the dialogue meeting continued with questions from the committee to the European Commission. It has been two good days with interesting questions to follow. We are particularly happy that Committee members Kingston asked a question about why the right to sign language interpretation is not included in the upcoming EU Mobility Card, Buntan asked how the EU is working to promote the legal recognition of sign languages in EU Member States and how the EU is providing accessible information in sign language to ensure political participation for deaf and Basharu from Nigeria asked a question about accessible 112 emergency numbers for deaf.

After these two days here in Geneva, the Committee will discuss and on 3 September they will give their recommendations in the form concluding observation to the EU. These are the recommendations that the Committee proposes the EU to keep working on and improve in order to fulfil their commitment to the Convention. The EU will then have four more years to make these improvements before they will be reviewed by the Committee again.

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