Council holds discussion on technical cooperation in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities

The Human Rights Council this morning held its annual thematic discussion on technical cooperation, focusing on technical cooperation and capacity-building in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities through legal and institutional frameworks, including public-private partnerships.

Flavia Pansieri, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in opening remarks, said that the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities remained one of the key areas of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ technical cooperation programmes. The Office worked to promote the human rights-based approach to disability and the challenging paradigm shift that this entailed for policy, law, programmes and practice. Considerable advances on making the rights of persons with disabilities a reality had been made, but much more remained to be done.

The panel discussion was moderated by Krerkpan Roekchamnong, Deputy Permanent Representative of Thailand to the United Nations Office at Geneva, who hoped that the discussion would provide an opportunity to exchange views, experiences and practices, and build and expand on the efforts of the Office of the High Commissioner.

During the discussion, speakers highlighted the importance of public-private cooperation, as well as with non-governmental organizations, as part of measures to increase accessibility, inclusion, and the exercise of human rights. Delegations also stressed the importance of integrating persons with disabilities in the post-2015 development framework, including through disability-specific programmes as well as mainstreaming the needs for persons with disabilities in development.

The Council is holding a full day of meetings. At 1.30 p.m., it will hold an interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on Côte d'Ivoire, and will then hear the presentation of the reports of the High Commissioner and the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation, followed by a general debate on technical assistance and capacity-building.

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