The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities needs to become reality. People have to watch over the realization of the Convention. This is called monitoring. People with disabilities should be part of monitoring.

The focus of this session was the implementation of  the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and was moderated by Tobias Buchner (Austria).

The first speaker of the session, Valentin Aichele (Director of the German Monitoring Mechanism for the UNCRPD), looked at what needs to be done in order to monitor the implementation of the Convention more effectively.

He stressed that monitoring should be done by a range of different actors, including independent national monitoring bodies, the UN Committee on the CRPD, civil society, particularly those representing people with disabilities, and, very importantly, by people with disabilities themselves.

Valentin Aichele spoke about two different levels of approach to monitoring: at micro level, by focusing on individual situations, whilst also at macro level, thus focusing on structural issues and general development.

Challenges to implementation included strengthening people with intellectual disabilities in order to participate in monitoring activities at national and international level, as well as the provision of adequate individual support to ensure their capacity to do this.

People with intellectual disabilities should play a key role in monitoring activities as stated explicitly in the Convention, and those who are called to undertake the monitoring should develop inclusive modes of cooperation and common strategies to enable more effective implementation.

Camille Latimier, Human Rights Officer of Inclusion Europe then spoke about monitoring of the UNCRPD by NGOs. She explained the State reporting process, including submission of the report, followed by the appointment of a country rapporteur to draft a list of issues on the basis of their concerns about the situation of people with intellectual disabilities in that country. Subsequently, the State should reply to these issues, after which the Committee drafts Observations. NGOs can take part at several stages, by submitting an alternative report and by commenting on the list of issues.

The involvement of NGOs is highly important. The main responsibility for the State report falls under the responsibility of the government; however, this should be done in cooperation with NGOs. NGOs are also entitled to submit an alternative report, which should be realistic, objective, reliable and concise.

At the end of the session, time was given for discussion about issues relating to the monitoring of the UNCRPD. Participants contributed their comments and asked questions. One important piece of advice from Valentin Aichele included ensuring that information around the Convention is provided in an accessible easy-to-understand format to ensure the full participation of people with intellectual disabilities throughout the monitoring process.