CRPD/C/GC/7 Convention. Organizations of persons with disabilities have certain characteristic aspects, including the fact that: (a) They are established predominantly with the aim of collectively acting, expressing, promoting, pursuing and/or defending the rights of persons with disabilities and should be generally recognized as such; (b) They employ, are represented by, entrust or specifically nominate/appoint persons with disabilities themselves; (c) They are not affiliated, in the majority of cases, to any political party and are independent from public authorities and any other non-governmental organizations of which they might be part/members of; (d) They may represent one or more constituencies based on actual or perceived impairment or can be open to membership of all persons with disabilities; (e) They represent groups of persons with disabilities reflecting the diversity of their backgrounds (in terms of, for example, sex, gender, race, age, or migrant or refugee status). They can include constituencies based on transversal identities (for example, children, women or indigenous people with disabilities) and comprise members with various impairments; (f) They can be local, national, regional or international in scope; (g) They can operate as individual organizations, coalitions or cross-disability or umbrella organizations of persons with disabilities, seeking to provide a collaborative and coordinated voice for persons with disabilities in their interactions with, among others, public authorities, international organizations and private entities. 12. Among the different types of organizations of persons with disabilities that the Committee has identified are: (a) Umbrella organizations of persons with disabilities, which are coalitions of representative organizations of persons with disabilities. Ideally, there should be only one or two umbrella organizations at each level of decision-making. To be open, democratic and represent the full and wide diversity of persons with disabilities, they should accept all organizations of persons with disabilities as members. They should be organized, led and controlled by persons with disabilities. They only speak on behalf of their member organizations and solely on matters that are of mutual interest and collectively decided upon. However, they cannot represent individual persons with disabilities because they often lack detailed knowledge of personal backgrounds. Individual organizations of persons with disabilities representing specific communities are in a better position to play such a role. However, persons with disabilities should be able to decide for themselves which organizations they want to represent them. The existence of umbrella organizations within States parties should not, under any circumstances, hinder individuals or organizations of persons with disabilities from participating in consultations or other forms of promoting the interests of persons with disabilities; (b) Cross-disability organizations, which are composed of persons representing all or some of the wide diversity of impairments. They most frequently organize at the local and/or national levels, but can also exist at the regional and international levels; (c) Self-advocacy organizations representing persons with disabilities in different, often loosely and/or locally formed, networks and platforms. They advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, especially persons with intellectual disabilities. Their establishment, with appropriate, sometimes extensive, support to enable their members to express their opinions, is of fundamental importance to political participation and participation in decision-making, monitoring and implementation processes. This is particularly relevant for persons who are prevented from exercising their legal capacity, institutionalized and/or denied the right to vote. In many countries, self-advocacy organizations are discriminated against through the refusal of a legal status because of laws and regulations that deny the legal capacity of their members; 3