Last year, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights convened an expert seminar on “Freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment and persons with disabilities”, in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the Committee against Torture. 

During this seminar, the Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak said that the issue of torture in relation to persons with disabilities will be addressed centrally in his report to the General Assembly. He also committed to ensuring that his fact-finding missions will include monitoring places of detention, including psychiatric institutions and foster homes where persons with disabilities are deprived of their liberty. This report is now published.

The report:

• clarifies the legal framework for the protection of persons with disabilities from torture, in light of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• applies the torture protection framework to the types of treatment, violence and abuse experienced by women, men and children with disabilities
• identifies some of the specific forms of torture and ill treatment typically inflicted on persons with disabilities
• formulates recommendations to States, independent human rights monitors (e.g. national human rights institutions, national anti-torture preventive mechanisms, civil society) and United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms.

Read the report.

Read also the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.