Potential Benefits and Limitations of the New Human Rights Indicators for the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

Abstract

The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006 to encourage the development of international and domestic legal protections for people with disabilities. Over the past sixteen years, 184 countries have ratified the CRPD, and more than one hundred countries have submitted their country reports to the CRPD Committee for review. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recently released a set of human rights indicators to measure states parties’ progress toward compliance with the CRPD. This essay discusses the potential benefits and limitations of the new CRPD Indicators. Despite their limitations, the CRPD Indicators may become an important catalyst for states parties’ compliance with the CRPD as well as a way to substantiate claims of violations of international, regional, and domestic law and crimes against humanity, such as those discussed in the lead article, Disability, Human Rights Violations, and Crimes Against Humanity.