UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (
UNCRPD) is an international treaty which identifies the rights of disabled people as well as the obligations on Parliament and the NI Assembly to promote, protect and ensure those rights. It aims to ensure that disabled people enjoy the same human rights as everyone else and that they can participate fully in society by receiving the same opportunities as others.
By ratifying the UN Convention in 2009, the UK is committed to promoting and protecting the full enjoyment of human rights by disabled people and ensuring they have full equality under the law. The Convention covers a wide range of areas including:
- health
- education
- employment
- access to justice
- personal security
- independent living, and
- access to information.
The full text of UNCRPD is available on the UN website; it is also available in an Easy Read format (pdf)
- See the 50 articles that form the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Equality Commission's role
The Equality Commission NI and the
NI Human Rights Commission are jointly designated as the
Independent Mechanism for Northern Ireland (IMNI) to
promote, protect and monitor implementation of UNCRPD, and report on this to the UN Committee. The Equality and Human Rights Commission and Scottish Human Rights Commission fulfill this role in Great Britain, and together we form the UK's Independent Mechanism (UKIM).