Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

NOTE: The 13th session has been tentatively rescheduled to the second week of December (to be confirmed by the committee on conferences of the United Nations, taking account of the ongoing situations of the COVID-19 in the world and the host city New York)

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 61/106 of 13 December 2006. It came into force on 3 May 2008 upon the 20th ratification. Article 40 of the Convention stipulates that “The States Parties shall meet regularly in a Conference of States Parties in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the present Convention.” Since 2008, 12 sessions of the Conference of States Parties have been held at United Nations Headquarters, New York.

The 13th session, per decided by States Parties at the 12th session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) in June 2019, will be scheduled to take place at the United Nations Headquarters, New York,  from 10 to 12 June 2020, during which an election of  nine members of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with disabilities will be conducted.

• President: Ecuador (Latin American and Caribbean Group)
• Vice-Presidents: Liberia (African Group), Singapore (Asia-Pacific Group), Hungary (Eastern European Group) and Finland (Western European and Others Group)

Theme and sub-themes (forthcoming)

Provisional agenda and programme (forthcoming)

Election of the Members of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Details announcements will be made available in the UN Journal and a Note of the Secretary-General. For more information, please visit the website of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Elections 2020.

Civil Society Participation
The active participation of the broad-based civil society, including in particular Organizations of persons with disabilities and other stakeholders, has become a critical element in the work of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP) since its inception in 2008.

For the forthcoming 13th session of the Conference of States Parties, the Bureau and the Secretariat will continue this practice. Processes are currently underway in order to consult and proactively involve and engage civil society especially representative organizations of persons with disabilities for their participation in the work for the 13th session, in line with the Rules of Procedure of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD ( CSP/CRPD/2008/3). More details for the announcement will be in forthcoming.