Considering that the EU and all its Member States have ratified and are bound by the United Nations (UN) Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), with a particular emphasis on Article 11;
Having regard to States obligations under the Security Council Resolution on the protection of persons with disabilities in armed conflict (S/RES/2475(2019);
Recalling the importance of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Developments Goals, highlighting Goal Nr. 16 on Peace, Security and Strong Institutions;
The European Disability Forum wishes to bring attention again to humanitarian crises around the world and their continued disproportionate impact on persons with disabilities. In conflict situations, persons with disabilities are among the first to lose their lives and to be left behind, and at heightened risk of international humanitarian law and human rights violations. The mortality rate among persons with disabilities tends to be two to four times higher than among the general population in situations of conflicts and natural disasters. These effects are multiplied for people who experience intersecting forms of discrimination, including women, children, older persons, and indigenous people.
The General Assembly of the European Disability Forum (EDF) therefore calls on EU institutions, Member States, national governments, and the United Nations to:
- End all hostilities, find peaceful solutions and ensure immediate access to humanitarian action, prioritising safety and protection of persons with disabilities and providing access to basic needs, including evacuation, food, shelter, health, medical supplies, and effective technical assistance.
- Ensure that persons with disabilities and their representative organisations are consulted and meaningfully involved from the very beginning, in all aspects of the humanitarian response cycle and decision making related to it, and receive all information in accessible format. This is a legal obligation under Article 4.3 and Article 9 of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and is reinforced by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Global Compact on Refugees.
- Ensure requirements of persons with disabilities are at the core of humanitarian assistance as detailed in the United Nations Inter Agency Standing Committee’s Guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action.
- Prioritise the requirements of those who are most at risk, particularly women and girls with disabilities, and children and older persons with disabilities, persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, deafblind persons, persons with high support needs, and those confined to institutional settings.
- Recognise that persons with disabilities, especially women and girls, are more at risk of gender-based violence, including human trafficking, and include their needs, rights and perspectives in programmes and policies developed to combat gender-based violence and human trafficking during wars and other humanitarian crisis.
- Include the inclusion of persons with disabilities in national emergency plans and national legislation with specific provisions targeting civilians with disabilities.
- Dedicate specific budget to accessibility and reasonable accommodation for inclusion of persons with disabilities from the very beginning of all initiatives, from response to reconstruction.
- Ensure that all UN Cluster activities are also consistently inclusive of persons with disabilities (especially Protection, Shelter, Health, WASH, Camp Coordination and Management and Education).
- Disaggregate assessment and monitoring data by gender, age and disability using the Washington Group set of questions, in order to understand the impact of the event on all of the population and how to reach everybody in response.