DICARP and IDA’s new status report shows little mention of disability rights in national climate policies
The Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program at McGill University and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) have released a new report on Disability Inclusion in National Climate Commitments and Policies.
The report provides a systematic analysis of the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their rights in the climate policies adopted by States parties to Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This includes the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) that States are required to submit every five years, as well as their national climate adaptation and mitigation policies. The report also features a compendium of references to disability in these climate policies.
States are obliged under international human rights law, most notably under the UNCRPD, to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of persons with disabilities in their response to climate change. However, the report finds that only 35 of the 192 States parties to the Paris Agreement refer to persons with disabilities in their NDCs or INDCs. At the domestic level, only 45 states refer to persons with disabilities in their climate adaptation policies, and none appear to refer to persons with disabilities in their climate mitigation policies. Moreover, the report concludes that even when states refer to disability, they do so in a cursory manner, without including meaningful mechanisms to consult people with disabilities or ensure their rights are respected in climate policies.
The report concludes that states are not fulfilling their obligations under the UNCRPD in the context of the climate crisis and sets out a number of concrete steps that states must take to ensure that persons with disabilities and their rights are fully and effectively included in collective efforts to combat climate change.
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