How is the European Union (EU) fulfilling its commitments under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?
At EDF, we have prepared this alternative report for the EU’s second review by the CRPD Committee. It provides a comprehensive analysis and key recommendations for the Concluding Observations on the EU.
Key areas of analysis:
- Policy Implementation: How the EU incorporates the CRPD into its policies.
- Internal Implementation: How the EU applies the CRPD within its own institutions and administration.
Findings and concerns:
While the EU has made progress since its first evaluation, full compliance with the CRPD—ensuring equal rights and freedoms for all persons with disabilities—remains unachieved.
In the report we highlight several critical concerns:
- Legal harmonisation with the CRPD: The European Commission has not taken steps to ensure legal harmonisation with the CRPD.
- Protection against discrimination: EU anti-discrimination laws remain inconsistent, creating a hierarchy among discrimination grounds.
- Rights of women with disabilities: EU gender and disability policies overlook the rights of women and girls with disabilities, who face higher violence risks, employment and education barriers, and human rights abuses like forced sterilisation.
- Accessibility: Despite progress in EU accessibility laws, persons with disabilities still face barriers in transport, digital access, communication, and services.
- Civil protection, humanitarian, and climate actions: Persons with disabilities remain disproportionately affected by conflicts and natural disasters worldwide.
- Freedom of movement: Persons with disabilities cannot transfer disability allowances when moving temporarily within the EU.
- Use of EU funds and independent living: Some Member States use Structural Funds to support institutional care instead of community-based alternatives aligned with the CRPD.
- Participation in political and public life: The EU has yet to align the 1976 Electoral Law with the CRPD, leaving 400,000 people in 13 Member States without voting rights in European elections.
- CRPD implementation and monitoring: The EU lacks political leadership and structure to implement the CRPD, with no dedicated unit, focal points, or inter-institutional coordination mechanism.
Next steps:
Stronger commitments and concrete actions are needed to ensure the EU fully aligns with the CRPD’s principles. This report calls for urgent reforms to close existing gaps and guarantee the full inclusion of persons with disabilities across all areas of life.