Delivering on the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy at UN Human Rights

​​​​OHCHR and the rights of persons with disabilities

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​​​​OHCHR and the rights of persons with disabilities


The UN Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS), adopted by the Secretary General in 2019, provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development.

The Strategy enables the UN system to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights instruments, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agenda for Humanity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

UN Human Rights first reported in 2020 to the Secretary General. Following the Human Rights Council’s resolution 43/23, UN Human Rights now reports on its performance under the UNDIS to the Human Rights Council.

Building on the first report, our Office worked to improve its performance under the UNDIS entity-based accountability framework. As reported in 2021, UN Human Rights made progress on five out of the 13 applicable indicators:

  • #1 Leadership - from missing to exceeds requirements;
  • #3 Disability-specific policy/strategy from approaches to exceeds requirements;
  • #4 Institutional set up from approaches to meets requirements;
  • #10 Evaluation from approaches to meets requirements; and
  • #13 Employment from missing to approaches requirements.
UN human Rights maintained all other ratings as per previous reporting. For more on OHCHR’s 2021 reporting: excel template | easy to read word

Our commitment to persons with disabilities and their rights is stronger than ever. In 2020, we adopted OHCHR’s first Disability Rights Strategy, which is composed of:

UN Human Rights also increased support to, and visibility of the human rights and disability team and in June 2021, the team became a Unit. In addition, UN Human Rights included disability specific questions in evaluations of some country and global programmes, and will continue expanding this work in 2021.