Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions The European Court of Human Rights has prepared a very useful dossier on its case law as it relates to persons with disabilities.216 It has directly cited the UN CRPD several times and especially in its case law on legal capacity, which generally tends to accord with article 12 of the UN CRPD.217 The European Revised Social Charter218 is another Council of Europe treaty which secures social and economic human rights, including housing, health, education, employment, movement of persons, nondiscrimination and legal protection. Article 15 of the Charter is specifically dedicated to the rights of persons with disabilities, focusing on independence and integration, education and vocational training, employment and access to services and support. The European Committee on Social Rights oversees States’ conformity with the Charter. The Committee has adjudicated on several high-profile disability collective complaints, beginning with the famous case of International Association Ausisme-Europe v France of 2004, which deals with the inclusion of children with autism in education. The Committee has published a useful factsheet on its disability jurisprudence.219 Similar to the UN system, the Council of Europe has its own Commissioner for Human Rights. The Commissioner has been very active on disability issues and has produced three influential ‘issue papers’ on the rights of persons with disabilities. They have examined the broad implications of the UN CRPD for Europe220, equal recognition before the law221 and the right to live independently and to be included in the community.222 Furthermore, the Commissioner has strongly argued against the elaboration of a draft Protocol to the Oviedo Biomedicine Convention, a treaty of the Council of Europe, on the grounds that it would conflict with the CRPD Committee’s understanding of the requirements of article 14 (on liberty) of the UN CRPD. This is an interesting spectacle; one part of the Council of Europe arguing against another on the basis of an external treaty. This clearly demonstrates how powerful the UN CRPD has become within the work of regional organisations. What this brief survey shows is that the relatively old instruments of the Council of Europe are steadily being informed by the standards and principles of the UN CRPD. This has implications for NHRIs who engage with the Strasbourg system in their regular work. The European Union The European Union, which has 28 Member States, is a ‘regional integration organisation’. Its Member States have transferred some aspects of their sovereignty to the EU institutions, have shared others with the EU and have reserved many others. Because it enjoys the exercise of transferred or shared sovereignty, the EU has standing to accede to the UN CRPD – and has done so. The EU Charter on Fundamental Rights223 enshrines certain political, social, and economic rights for European Union citizens and residents into EU law. The provisions of the Charter are addressed to the institutions and bodies of the European Union and to Member States only when they are implementing EU law. The Charter does not add to existing EU competences. At the end of the day it is these legal competences that matter. 84 216 Fact sheets on ‘Persons with disabilities and the European Convention on Human Rights’ are available at www.echr.coe.int/ Documents/FS_Disabled_ENG.pdf. 217 O. Lewis, ‘Advancing Legal Capacity Jurisprudence’, European Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 6, 2011, pp. 700-714. 218 Text available at www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/163. 219 Available at www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/Theme%20factsheets/FactsheetDisabled_en.pdf. 220 Available at https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?p=&id=1355349&direct=true. 221 Available at https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?p=&id=1908555&direct=true. 222 Available at https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?p=&id=1917847&direct=true. 223 Available at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/charter/index_en.htm.