Second evaluation of Belgium by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: report and recommendations (2024)

The concluding observations of September 5, 2024 of the UN Committee's experts listed the positive aspects and principal areas of concern and recommendations.

We note that Unia's concerns and recommendations have been heard and taken up in this “bulletin” from Belgium.

Unia intervened throughout the evaluation procedure to provide an independent view of the situation of fundamental rights of people with disabilities in Belgium and to ensure that the Committee's recommendations were the most relevant for people with disabilities.

In 2019, Unia worked to influence the list of questions posed by the Committee to the authorities that formed the basis of Belgium's report. In 2020, Unia carried out a consultation with people with disabilities on respect for their rights and another on the impact of the COVID crisis on them and their families in order to inform its work with the Committee. In 2021, Unia drafted a parallel report to comment on, correct and add to the information provided in the Belgian report. In 2024, UNIA updated its parallel report and took part in consultations with the Committee and constructive dialogue in Geneva (see below).

During the constructive dialogue between Belgium and the Committee on August 22, 2024, the Committee’s experts put questions to the representatives of the various authorities on how Belgium had progressed in the concrete implementation of the Convention’s rights.

Unia was given the floor to open and close the session.

The question asked was: are the rights of people with disabilities better respected today than they were 10 years ago, when the Committee first made its recommendations? Unia pointed out that, with the exception of a few significant advances, too little progress had been made in important areas such as education, accessibility and institutionalization.

At the end of the day, Unia stressed its concern at not having heard:

1. An explicit response on a ban on segregation
2. A commitment to ensuring the accessibility of existing buildings
3. What the authorities intend to put in place to guarantee assistance in decision-making
4. A commitment to put an end to the indefinite deprivation of liberty of interned persons

Unia then appealed to all Belgian authorities to make use of this evaluation: “Use the Convention. Use the recommendations of civil society, the independent mechanisms and the Committee, to create an ambitious plan that will effectively implement all the articles of the Convention. That way, we can come back to you for Belgium's next evaluation confirming that, yes, the rights of people with disabilities in Belgium are better respected today than they were 10 years ago.”

In this regard, Unia notes the following:

• public buildings and public spaces, public transport, as well as the media and the internet, are still insufficiently accessible
• in the event of an acute crisis or disaster (the corona crisis or the floods in 2021), Belgium does not yet have a crisis management plan that takes people with disabilities into account
• Support services for inclusion are not sufficiently used and valued
• Funding for the specific needs of pupils with disabilities largely goes to special education
• government funding is still mainly focused on employment in adapted work companies and too little funding is allocated to supported employment in mainstream sectors
• the justice of the peace now has to rule systematically on the voting rights of persons with protection status

In accordance with the collaboration protocol signed between Unia and Myria, the Federal Migration Centre, the latter contributed to the drafting of the parallel report for the parts relating to its subjects.