The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is reviewing the European Union’s compliance with its disability rights treaty on 11 and 12 March.

Ahead of the review, the European Disability Forum (EDF) and the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) submitted written input to the committee focused on the EU’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in EU external action beyond the EU. By EU external action, we refer to EU policies, programmes and partnerships related to international development cooperation and partnerships, humanitarian action, disaster risk reduction, climate action, as well as to the EU’s role as a global actor in multilateral fora. We build on the joint EDF and IDDC input submitted to the CRPD Committee in 2022 ahead of the adoption of the List of Issues Prior to Reporting and on EDF’s alternative report submitted to the CRPD Committee in January 2025.

Our input focusses on the EU’s implementation of CRPD Article 11 (on Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies) and CRPD Article 32 (on International Cooperation). However, we recognise that other CRPD Articles are also important for the EU’s implementation of the CRPD in its external action and for the EU to ensure coherence between their internal and external policies and programmes. We outline key concerns and suggest recommendations which the CRPD Committee could address during the dialogue with the EU and in the adoption of the Concluding Observations.

While EDF and IDDC recognise that some progress and positive steps have been made since the EU’s review by the CRPD Committee in 2015, we are concerned that many of the recommendations related to Articles 11 and 32 made in the 2015 Concluding Observations remain incomplete or unfulfilled.

Read the full input

Input on external action ahead of the EU’s review by the CRPD Committee, February 2025 (Word document)