As the UN Preparatory Committee for the draft Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity prepare to meet between 19-30 January 2026, Global Rights Compliance joins the Initiative for Disability Inclusion in the Convention on Crimes against Humanity calling for the meaningful inclusion of disability perspectives in the Convention.
Persons with disabilities have long been subjected to serious international crimes, including targeted killings, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, forced sterilisation, and involuntary medical experimentation. Despite extensive documentation, such crimes have rarely been explicitly recognised or prosecuted as crimes against humanity, contributing to the continued invisibility of victims and impunity for perpetrators.
The Initiative highlights significant gaps in the current draft articles, which neither explicitly recognise disability as a protected group for the purposes of persecution nor sufficiently integrate disability inclusion across the Convention. This Сomission stands in contrast to existing international legal obligations, including those under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, international criminal jurisprudence, and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
GRC has endorsed the Initiative’s Policy Brief, which sets out concrete legal recommendations to ensure that persons with disabilities and their rights are explicitly recognised and meaningfully included in the future Convention. The recommendations aim to align the Convention with contemporary human rights standards and to ensure equal recognition before the law, protection, access to justice, and accountability for crimes committed against persons with disabilities.
The Policy Brief strongly encourages the incorporation of disability-specific provisions, alongside age- and gender-appropriate safeguards, procedural protections, and reasonable accommodations. These measures are essential to reflect the disproportionate impact of serious crimes on persons with disabilities and to ensure justice for all victims of crimes against humanity.
Read the policy brief here.