A/HRC/RES/55/8
Expressing concern at the adverse impact of climate change on all persons with
disabilities and in particular individuals with multiple vulnerability factors, including women
and girls with disabilities, those living in small island developing States and those living in
contexts of poverty and conflict, and emphasizing the need for States to take and to support
adequate measures to address their specific needs and to ensure participation and leadership
in disaster response planning for emergency situations and evacuations, humanitarian
emergency response and health-care services,
Reaffirming the need to mainstream gender and age perspectives and to take disabilityinclusive measures to address multiple, aggravated and intersecting forms of discrimination,
including ableism and ageism, in all efforts to promote gender equality and the full and equal
enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities,
Recalling the general principles enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, namely, non-discrimination, full and effective participation and inclusion
in society, respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human
diversity and humanity, individual autonomy and independence of persons with disabilities,
gender equality and respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities,
Recalling also that article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities obliges States parties to recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities
to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and to take effective and appropriate
measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full
inclusion and participation in the community, including by ensuring that community services
and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with
disabilities and are responsive to their needs,
Noting that assistive technologies, both digital and non-digital, can enable and
promote the inclusion, participation and engagement of persons with disabilities in all areas
of society, including the political, economic and social spheres,
Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination and all other relevant international human rights instruments,
Taking into account the fact that human rights-based support and care systems,
comprising disability-inclusive policies, persons, products and services, are essential for
persons with disabilities to participate fully and effectively in society, on an equal basis with
others, to live with dignity, autonomy and independence, and to live independently in the
community, as recognized in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
Noting that “support” encompasses a wide range of formal and informal interventions,
including unpaid support work, products, services and infrastructure, and enables persons
with disabilities to carry out activities of daily living and actively participate in their
communities with choice, control, agency, autonomy and independence,
Concerned that some traditional care models, which are not human rights-based, have
placed persons with disabilities as passive recipients of care, without agency, leading to a
loss of autonomy, economic disempowerment, and segregation and isolation from the rest of
the community or from families, and that these models can lead to paternalistic attitudes and
practices that heighten the risk of violence against and exploitation and abuse of persons with
disabilities and are detrimental to gender equality, and that many persons with disabilities
face barriers to social inclusion owing to traditional care models predicated on social
constructs that equate disability with dependence,
Noting the significance of peer support as autonomous, self-directed and separate
from institutional and medical frameworks, and underlining its importance for
empowerment, consciousness-raising, independent living and social participation,
Deeply concerned that women and girls with disabilities of all ages face multiple,
aggravated and intersecting forms of stigma and discrimination, which constitute barriers to
community inclusion not only compared to other women and girls without disabilities but
also compared to men and boys with disabilities, and are also disproportionally exposed to
violence, including sexual and gender-based violence and abuse, and that existing support
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