Monitoring and Implementation

The CRPD sets out international human rights standards for persons with disabilities which, like other core human rights conventions, require both national and international monitoring as well as implementation measures.

At national level, Article 33 establishes three types of national level monitoring, implementation, and coordination mechanisms and mandates a role for civil society, viz.:

• designation of one or more focal points within government for matters relating to implementation of the Convention;
• establishment or designation of a coordination mechanism within government to facilitate related action in different sectors and at different levels;
• one or more independent national human rights institutions; and
• participation of civil society in national monitoring.

Article 33, National implementation and monitoring, requires that States set up national focal points in government to monitor implementation of the Convention's precepts and set up some form of independent monitoring mechanism, which usually takes the form of an independent national human rights institution. Article 33 also recognizes the important role of civil society, in particular persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, in national monitoring and implementation processes.

International monitoring is achieved through both the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a periodic meeting at a Conference of States Parties.

The CRPD Committee is responsible for reviewing mandatory reports that all States Parties must submit on how they are implementing the CRPD. In addition, the Optional Protocol to the CRPD provides a means for individuals to complain when their rights are not respected and for an independent international committee of experts, the CRPD Committee, to undertake inquiries into serious rights abuses.

You can learn more about monitoring and implementation in the Module on Frameworks for Implementing and Monitoring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.