Traning on UNCRPD Monitoring & Reporting

16 October - 17 October 2017

Holiday Inn, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) will organize a Training Workshop on Monitoring and Reporting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The workshop is targeting Disabled People Organizations (DPOs), particularly those affiliated to SAFOD in the ten countries, from 14th to 15th September 2017, at Holiday Inn, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Article 35 of the CRPD requires that State Parties submit reports on how the rights of people with disabilities are being implemented within their country. States must first report within two years of ratifying the Convention, and then every four years after that. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) examines each report and responds with a List of Issues (LOI) that raises questions and requests additional information. The states party must then follow up with a Reply to the List of Issues, providing answers to the Committee's questions and providing the additional information that they requested. The Committee then issues Concluding Observations, in which they make suggestions and general recommendations in reaction to the report and to the Reply to the List of Issues.

Article 33 and the CPRD Committee’s guidelines on State Reporting support participation of non-governmental bodies, especially Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) in the monitoring and reporting process. DPOs are allowed and encouraged to submit shadow reports (also known as parallel reports) that are reviewed by the Committee in addition to the reports submitted by State Parties.

The workshop therefore aims to build the capacity of the DPOs in this regard to ensure that they are competently able to monitor rights violations and other human rights situations of persons with disabilities, competently draft shadow reports, and submit the same to the relevant Committee.