The Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Longitudinal Study Project by Aktion Mensch Based on the Concluding Observations Reports of 16 Member States

Abstract

This report summarises the main findings from a study into the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The study set out to answer four questions by investigating 29 concluding observations reports from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for 16 States Parties, covering 16 reports for the first review process of 2011-2015 and 13 from the second review process of 2019-2023. This investigation included content and thematic analysis, and aimed to grade each report. The research questions were: 1. Are there differences in the grade of implementation of the UNCRPD between the States Parties? 2. Are there differences between the States in the progress/ regress of implementation of the UNCRPD between the two periods? 3. Can States Parties be ranked in terms of the grade or progress of implementation? 4. Is it possible to identify thematic focal points in which the concluding observations reports of certain States Parties differ from those of other States? Concerning the first and third questions, the study has demonstrated that this is possible. However, the final overall grades are remarkably similar in this sample, most likely due to the small sample size of only 13 States Parties at the second report stage. Despite this similarity between overall grades, the individual articles demonstrate considerable variation, enabling respective States Parties to identify areas of weakness where improvements are most needed. In relation to the second research question of whether reports can be compared longitudinally, the answer for this set of reports is no. This is because the sample comprises those States Parties whose initial concluding observations reports were very early in the Committee's monitoring process. All of the States Parties appear to have regressed significantly, whereas in reality the change lies in the Committee’s growing understanding and increasingly deep analysis of the implementation of rights. Regarding the fourth question of whether themes were identifiable within the sample, the answer is yes, with 'intersectional discrimination' and 'deinstitutionalisation' as examples of discernible themes. Where these themes were evident, particularly when the Committee made repeated comments about them, this impacted the grade the State Party received for each article that contained a reference to one of these issues, and it therefore significantly affected the States Parties' overall grades. If States Parties were to eliminate these barriers to the full implementation of article rights, the concerns raised by the Committee would thus be greatly reduced, reflecting an improved implementation of rights and consequently significantly improving the grading in this type of analysis.