Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Cross-cutting or transversal provisions The UN CRPD provides assistance in understanding and interpreting other articles, including in relation to: • Definitions (article 2) that explain what is meant by key terms in the Convention, including discrimination, reasonable accommodation and universal design • General or guiding principles (article 3), which are discussed in detail above • Accessibility (article 9), in relation to the built environment, transportation, goods and services, information and communication • Awareness raising (article 8), which requires States parties to take action to combat prejudice and stereotypes faced by persons with disabilities, including through public awareness campaigns, education in schools and encouraging a positive portrayal of persons with disabilities by the media. The Convention places particular emphasis on promoting awareness of the capabilities and contributions of persons with disabilities. The Convention also includes a number of articles that are highly particular to persons with disabilities. While they have a relationship to existing rights under other international human rights treaties, they do not have exact equivalents: • Personal mobility (article 20) promotes independence for persons with disabilities through the provision of training, assistance, aids and equipment • Habilitation and rehabilitation (article 26) enables, respectively, persons with disabilities from birth and those who have acquired a disability to attain and maintain independence, especially in terms of health, employment, education and social services. It is important to note that the UN CRPD does not seek to separate out rights (and substantive provisions) according to whether they are primarily civil and political in character or economic, social and cultural in character. It is probably best to assume that each right (and the associated obligations) blends both sets of rights and obligations. As such, it probably makes more sense to characterise them according to their function (e.g. promoting dignity) rather than using traditional framings of rights and obligations. This co-mingling can be complicating but probably no more so than was originally intended by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 3.5. ARTICLE 33: THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, NHRIs AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO IMPLEMENT THE UN CRPD As highlighted in Part I of this Manual, the Convention contemplates a deep process of change and reform in States parties. It involves more than simply requiring governments to comply with the treaty. Unique among human rights treaties, the UN CRPD requires, and sets out in clear terms, an institutional architecture for change that States parties must establish. Indeed, and as an engine of change, the very success of the Convention will depend on how successfully this domestic architecture is able to work.89 The three core elements of this architecture for change are described below. 89 46 See G. Quinn ‘Resisting the Temptation of Elegance: Can the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Socialise States to Right Behaviour?’, in O. Arnardottir and G. Quinn (eds), The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: European and Scandinavian Perspectives, 2009; pp. 215-255.