• Text of the Study on human rights and disability 
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• Executive Summary of the Study on human rights and disability 
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• Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on progress in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Study on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities E/CN.4/2003/88 
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• Study on Human Rights and Disability [to order a copy]
  
  

In Resolution 2000/51 on the human rights of persons with disabilities, the Commission on Human Rights invited “the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development, to examine measures to strengthen the protection and monitoring of the human rights of persons with disabilities”. 

Further to this resolution, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) decided to strengthen its work on disability, and elaborated a long-term project which aims at facilitating the integration of disability issues in the activities of treaty-monitoring bodies and human rights extra-conventional mechanisms (e.g. Special Rapporteurs to the Commission on Human Rights) and at supporting discussion on a proposed new Convention on the human rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. 

The first outcome of the project the Office designed for this purpose is the publication of a study on "Human Rights and Disability: The Current Use and Future Potential of United Nations Human Rights Instruments in the Context of Disability", commissioned from the Research Centre on Human Rights and Disability of the University of Galway (Ireland). 

The Study analyses the relevance of the United Nations human rights system in the context of disability. It considers the provisions of the six main human rights treaties from a disability perspective, and reviews how the system actually works by looking at how States parties report to the treaty monitoring bodies on human rights and disability, and how the treaty monitoring bodies respond. The Study concludes that the United Nations human rights treaties have considerable potential in the field of disability, but have generally been underused in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. Its main thesis is that the process of disability reform that is taking place across the globe could be strengthened and accelerated if greater and more targeted use were made of these human rights instruments. 

Finally, the Study suggests options for the future, both to improve the use of existing human rights norms and mechanisms in relation to disability, and to explore the possible need for a new international instrument. A wide range of recommendations designed to enhance the future use of the United Nations human rights system in the context of disability is addressed to States parties, the treaty-monitoring bodies, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Commission on Human Rights, national human rights institutions and civil society.