CRPD/C/GC/8
4.
Persons with disabilities face barriers to gaining access to and exercising their right to
work and employment in the open labour market, on an equal basis with others. Persons with
disabilities face high unemployment rates, lower wages, instability, lower standards in hiring
conditions, and lack of accessibility of the work environment, and are also less likely than
other persons to be appointed to managerial positions when they are formally employed. All
such barriers are exacerbated for women with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are more
likely to earn lower wages than other persons and are more likely to be in vulnerable
employment, including being employed in the informal sector, being self-employed or
engaging in part-time employment.3 Data and other evidence indicate that these differences
particularly affect persons with disabilities on such grounds as age, gender, sex, ethnicity and
place of residence.
5.
Evolving conditions in economies and the labour market create new challenges and
opportunities to ensure the right to work. New technologies, including artificial intelligence
and the shift to digital work, can create new barriers or forms of discrimination as well as
offering new pathways into work and new forms of employment. Economic transformations,
such as the transition to a green economy or the response to crises, create opportunities for
inclusion as well as the threat of leaving people behind.4
6.
Article 27 of the Convention incorporates several interdependent and interrelated
rights within the right to work, including, in article 27 (1) (b), the rights of persons with
disabilities, on an equal basis with others, to just and favourable conditions of work and to
safe working conditions, including protection from harassment, and, in article 27 (1) (c), the
collective dimension of the right to work and the exercise by persons with disabilities of their
labour and trade union rights on an equal basis with others.5 The aim of the present general
comment is to provide a comprehensive overview of the obligations of States parties under
article 27, considering the interdependence of the measures on the right to work listed in that
article, and the interrelationship of the right to work and employment with the provisions of
other articles of the Convention.
II. Human rights model of disability
7.
The Committee has consistently expressed concern that the legislation and policies of
States parties still reflect an ableist approach to disability, through charity and/or medical
models, despite the incompatibility of those models with the Convention. 6 Under those
models, persons with disabilities are not acknowledged as subjects of rights and as rights
holders, but are instead “reduced” to their impairments. 7 Discriminatory or differential
treatment and the exclusion of persons with disabilities are seen as the norm, legitimized by
a medically-driven, incapacity approach to disability. Such ableist approaches preclude
States parties from eliminating persistent barriers, particularly disability stereotypes and
stigmas that prevent persons with disabilities from being able to work on an equal basis with
others.
8.
To realize the rights in the Convention, States parties need to apply the human rights
model of disability. In its general comment No. 6 (2018) on equality and non-discrimination,
the Committee sets out the human rights model of disability, under which it is recognized
that disability is a social construct, that impairments are a valued aspect of human diversity
and dignity and that impairments must not be taken as legitimate grounds for the denial or
restriction of human rights. Disability is acknowledged as one of many multidimensional
3
4
5
6
7
2
Disability and Development Report: Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with
Persons with Disabilities – 2018 (United Nations publication, 2019), pp. 155–158.
See International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Business and Disability Network and Fundación
ONCE, “Making the future of work inclusive of persons with disabilities”, 21 November 2019.
Article 27 (1), chapeau, and (1) (b) and (c) relates directly to three interdependent articles of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, namely articles 6, 7 and 8. The
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has issued general comments on articles 6 and 7
of the Covenant.
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 6 (2018), para. 2.
Ibid., para. 8.