The European Disability Forum deeply regrets the decision of EU policy-makers to remove the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and numerous other human rights treaties from the list of Human rights and fundamental freedoms instruments included in the final agreement on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
The aim of this Directive is to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour and to anchor human rights and environmental considerations in companies’ operations. It should ensure that businesses address the adverse impacts of their actions on marginalised groups, including in their supply chains inside and outside Europe. However, the agreement reached during their negotiations seems to show that EU co-legislators, particularly within the Council, do not consider it a priority to protect the rights of marginalised groups, including persons with disabilities. It sets a precedent where the rights of persons with disabilities globally are second class and negotiable – where they can be traded in order to breach an agreement. It also brings into question the value of the Directive existing at all, since this much-touted “anchor of human rights” takes such a half-hearted approach to protecting marginalised persons, including the estimated 1.3 billion persons with disabilities worldwide.
According to the latest agreement on the Directive (dated 15 January), the European Commission, Parliament and Council of the EU agreed to remove many human rights treaties from a relevant annexe, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, from the list of international instruments governing the Directive.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a fully binding international Treaty signed and ratified by the EU itself as well as by all 27 Member States. Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by unfair employment practices and exploitation, both within the European Union and beyond. Protection from such human rights violations is central to this Convention. Its applicability through the Directive cannot be conditional.
While the Commission’s original proposal and the Parliament’s position foresaw this annexe that clearly outlined the international conventions and treaties companies must adhere to in their operations, the final agreement relegates it to a Recital that merely includes a reference to persons with disabilities and to the Convention. The new Recital makes respect for the rights of persons with disabilities conditional upon the circumstances of each company. The wording is vague and will make it easy for companies to avoid this obligation.
The removal of the explicit references to human rights treaties from the Annex to the Directive endangers its applicability when it comes to guaranteeing the full respect of human rights across supply chains. The lack of specific references to binding legal instruments will undoubtedly weaken the effectiveness of the Directive when it comes to protecting the rights of people from marginalised groups, such as persons with disabilities.
The European Disability Forum therefore calls on the Parliament, the Council and the Commission to bring back the reference to the UNCRPD onto the Annex of the Directive, as originally proposed by the European Commission and supported by the Parliament.