UN Convention needs to define concept of reasonable opportunity, says India

The opportunities for employment should not be denied by prescription of kind of disabilities; full opportunity should be afforded to ensure need-based distributive justice, Justice Arun Mishra said

India has said that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) provides the concept of reasonable opportunity but it is required to be defined properly as it is culminating in the proportionate opportunity, which is restrictive in nature.

The opportunities for employment should not be denied by prescription of kind of disabilities; full opportunity should be afforded to ensure need-based distributive justice, Justice Arun Mishra, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said.

The CRPD provides the concept of reasonable opportunity. However, it is required to be defined properly as it is culminating in the proportionate opportunity, which is restrictive in nature, he said.

Justice Mishra said this while making an intervention in the 3rd Roundtable on the Implementation of CRPD as part of the 16th Session of the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP16), which is being organised at UN Headquarters from June 13 15.

Justice Mishra said the standards for accessibility to disability rights were set in India's The Rights of Persons with Disabilities, RPWD Act, 2016, but the challenge was to create awareness.

Disabled are called specially abled to provide them dignity and improve their mindset, he said, adding that preparation of education and other material for the primary to secondary level education in sign language, audio-visual mode, print, and electronic media was being focused upon.

Justice Mishra, accompanied by NHRC member Rajiv Jain also said that discrimination in adoption must come to an end.

Physical, mental, and emotional stability needs required to be defined. He also said that the concept of severe disability should be properly defined along with the circumstances to take the consent of guardians etc for surgery to avoid its misuse, he stressed.