Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 5: UN human rights instruments and related processes KEY QUESTIONS • How are the human rights of persons with disabilities reflected in the wider international and regional human rights framework? • How do the other UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies deal with disability? • How do regional instruments and mechanisms deal with disability issues? Since the two United Nations covenants on human rights156 and the various UN thematic treaties on human rights are universal in scope, they apply equally to persons with disabilities. What has emerged in the past 20 years or so – and especially since the adoption of the UN CRPD – is that the interpretation of these treaties by their respective treaty monitoring bodies has trended in favour of the rights of persons with disabilities. This can be seen in the various general comments and general recommendations that have crystallised the jurisprudence under these treaties as it relates to disability, directly or indirectly. It can also be seen on the concluding observations of the different treaty monitoring bodies. It would seem that the UN CRPD is exerting a powerful influence on these other treaties, encouraging their interpretation along lines consistent with the UN CRPD. This general symmetry of interpretation reinforces the principles that underpin the UN CRPD and ensures that these treaties can be, in themselves, powerful forces for change, especially for the few States that have not ratified the UN CRPD. What follows is an overview of the evolving jurisprudence on disability. 5.1. THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DISABILITY The emergence of disability as a human rights issue first arose from the civil rights model of disability early on in the United States. Civil and political rights are vital for persons with disabilities as they encapsulate a theory of human dignity and autonomy which is essential for human flourishing, as well as protect persons with disabilities against various abuses of power. Two general comments of the Human Rights Committee, which is responsible for monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) are especially pertinent in relation to disability: General Comment No. 21 concerning the humane treatment of people deprived of their liberty, including those in psychiatric hospitals,157 and General Comment No. 25 concerning the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, the right to vote and to be elected and the right to have access to public service.158 72 156 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). 157 See http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=8&DocTypeID=11. 158 CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.7.