Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions It has developed indicators regarding political participation and is presently developing indicators regarding the right to live independently (see Part III for further details). The Agency has also started to look at the issue of targeted violence and hostility experience by children with disabilities.231 The Agency is a central part of the EU monitoring framework for the Convention, which includes the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Disability Forum and the EU Ombudsman. However, in its 2015 concluding observations to the European Union, the CRPD Committee called on the European Commission to withdraw from the monitoring framework as it is primarily an executive body. The impact of the UN CRPD in the work of the EU is extremely powerful, which is due in large part to the EU’s accession to the Convention. It is also powerful because the instruments used by the EU are themselves powerful. A recent example is in how the Regulations for the EU Structural Funds (a fund to be distributed from richer to poorer EU countries) has been changed to ensure that taxpayer’s monies are not spent on opening or even refurbishing institutions, but are spent instead to assist States to transition towards community living models. NHRIs are increasingly engaging with EU institutions, as evidenced by locating the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions in Brussels. As previously mentioned, the 2015 concluding observations of the CRPD Committee include a recommendation that the European Commission should withdraw from the monitoring framework the EU established under article 33(2) of the Convention. A new framework is expected to be established in 2016. In March 2016, the European Parliament requested an ‘Opinion’ from the Fundamental Rights Agency on how the monitoring framework might be reconstituted in light of the concerns expressed by the CPRD Committee. This ‘Opinion’ – an extensive 36-page document – was delivered on 13 May 2016. It makes for compelling reading as it considers the conclusions of the Committee and skilfully applies them to the specific circumstances of the EU as a regional integration organisation. It should be read by anyone interested in how NHRIs can actively contribute to shaping the relevant article 33(2) ‘frameworks’. 6.4. THE AMERICAS: THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES The American Convention on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) is an international human rights instrument which came into force in 1978.232 The bodies responsible for overseeing compliance with the Convention are the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,233 both of which are organs of the OAS.234 There are presently 23 active parties to the Convention. Article 1 of the American Convention on Human Rights obliges States to respect human rights without discrimination. Disability is not explicitly mentioned but, as with the African Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights, the list of grounds is not exhaustive by virtue of inclusion of the words “or other social condition”. Article 24 of the Convention provides for equal protection before the law. Article 26 of the Convention requires States parties to achieve progressively the economic, social and cultural rights “implicit in the economic, social, educational, scientific, and cultural standards set forth in the Charter of the Organization of American States as amended by the Protocol of Buenos Aires”. The Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities,235 adopted in 1999, is another regional human rights instrument within the OAS. Its stated objectives are “to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities and to promote their full integration into society”. 86 231 Ibid. 232 Available at www.oas.org/dil/treaties_B-32_American_Convention_on_Human_Rights.htm. 233 See www.oas.org/en/iachr. 234 See www.oas.org/en/default.asp. 235 Available at www.oas.org/juridico/english/treaties/a-65.html.