Part II The law: International human rights law and disability Section II Other international and regional human rights instruments and disability Article 21 of the Charter prohibits discrimination, including on the grounds of disability. Article 26 specifically concerns the integration of persons with disabilities: The Union recognises and respects the right of persons with disabilities to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, social and occupational integration and participation in the life of the community. EU treaty law requires mainstreaming of the elimination of all forms of discrimination into all activities and in policy development.224 An Employment Equality Directive of 2000 – EU legislation requiring Member States to introduce certain measures in their own laws – lays down minimum standards to prohibit direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation and instructions to discriminate.225 It includes discrimination based on disability. It requires that employers and providers of vocational training should be placed under an obligation to provide ‘reasonable accommodation’ to disabled job applicants and employees.226 In 2008, the European Commission proposed the enactment of an additional Equal Treatment Directive in relation to the provision of goods and services, transport and education and social protection, which would also include disability.227 The proposed Directive would introduce the concept of ‘anticipatory’ reasonable accommodation into EU law. It has not yet been enacted. In 2011, the European Union ‘concluded’ (ratified) the UN CRPD in its capacity as a regional integration organisation under article 44 of the Convention. It was the first international human rights treaty to be ratified by the EU. This has implications for law reform at EU level and has already had an impact on regulations governing how EU funds are spent in lesser developed regions of Europe. The CRPD Committee’s assessment of the Initial Report of the European Union was published in 2015. The main features of the concluding observations were that the EU should conduct a thorough review of its legislation to assess its consistency with the Convention, that dialogue with civil society should be further strengthened, that the monitoring mechanism of the EU needs to be changed and that the EU should facilitate the search by its Member States for new models in the field of assisted decisionmaking. The Committee also recommended speeding up the enactment of a broader equality Directive. The EU Disability Strategy (2010–2020) is a central vehicle through which the EU pursues implementation of the Convention.228 The Strategy is focused on eight priority areas of concern to the EU and its Member States (but only when implementing EU law): • Accessibility • Participation • Equality • Employment • Education and training • Social protection • Health • External action (international development). The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights229 is tasked with providing evidence-based advice to the European Union and its Member States when implementing EU law on human rights. To do so, the Agency has carried out analysis regarding political participation of persons with disabilities, legal capacity, and the right to live independently and to be included in the community.230 224 European Disability Strategy 2010-2020: A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier Free; available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Lex UriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0636:FIN:en:PDF. 225 Council Directive 2000/78/EC OJ L303/16, article 3; available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX% 3A32000L0078. 226 Ibid, article 2. 227 See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0426:FIN:EN:PDF. 228 Available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0636:FIN:en:PDF. 229 More information on the Agency for Fundamental Rights is available at http://fra.europa.eu/en. 230 See http://fra.europa.eu/en/theme/people-disabilities. Chapter 6: Regional human rights instruments and disability | 85