News and Developments
June 8, 2026: Making the Milestone Count: The Twentieth Anniversary of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Statement by the Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative (DRDI)
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 12 December, 2006. Entering into force on 3 May, 2008, and now with 192 States Parties, the Convention creates no new rights but rather definitively establishes – on the basis of the UN’s Charter, Declaration of Human Rights, and International Covenants on Human Rights – rights-based and social models of disability in place of traditional medical and charitable models. “Concerned,” as its Preamble notes, “that, despite these various instruments and undertakings, persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in their participation as equal members of society and violations of their human rights in all parts of the world,” the Convention sets the stage for a new era of disability-inclusivity in mainstream society, rooted in the primacy of agency and autonomy and reflecting the full and deep diversity of the human family as a whole, and the disability community itself.
As the annual Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the CRPD meets (June 9-11) to mark the anniversary, honour those who worked so hard to make the Convention possible, review its successes, register its shortcomings, and identify key challenges, the Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative (DRDI) pledges its support for efforts to fulfil the empowering potential of the Convention in all areas of political, social, economic and cultural life, including in one area of fundamental importance to the United Nations and the future of humanity: disarmament.
Since late 2023, our Initiative has forged new connections between the disarmament and disability rights communities, united in a determination to raise the woefully – and illogically – low profile of disability rights and issues in disarmament spaces, particularly in the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, annually entrusted with reviewing and advancing efforts to prohibit and regulate weapons (from handguns to H-Bombs) and practices of war causing and compounding a wide range of disabilities on a vast scale.
Although the CRPD, particularly Article 11, has inspired efforts – most notably Security Council Resolution 2475 (2019) – with regard to the protection of persons with disabilities in armed conflict, our view is that this agenda must encompass efforts to protect persons with disabilities from armed conflict, including through the most effective means of conflict prevention yet devised: disarmament. In addition to saving lives, disarmament saves money, deploying financial and human resources in ways making lives, all lives, more livable and rewarding.
This switch from war to peace, conflict to cooperation, is the basic paradigm-shift envisioned in the UN Charter, Article 26 especially, as well as being central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 16 on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Disarmament is crucial in lending strength (and sustainability) to that kind of strength-through-peace must come in part through disarmament; and our belief is that – complementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agendas of recent decades – a Disability, Peace and Security (DPS) agenda is crucial to lending strength, indeed revitalizing the flagging fortunes, of 21st century disarmament.
On the basis of our first few years of working to make disability visible as a priority issue in disarmament spaces – the First Committee, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TNPW), and others – we believe that the CRPD holds the key to our success moving forward. The case for aligning disarmament diplomacy with the rights-based and social approach and obligations of the Convention is one that an increasing number of states, from diverse regions, are taking seriously, and even find compelling. The problem, hitherto, has been that – with a few exceptions like the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an accord in part by the CRPD’s adoption – disability rights have not been on the disarmament radar, leaving persons with disabilities very far from the disarmament table.
We issue this statement in the hope that not only will it further raise consciousness of the CRPD in the disarmament diplomacy community, but that it will also raise the profile of disarmament issues within the disability rights and CRPD community. In advance of the anniversary COSP, the International Disability Alliance (IDA), launched a campaign, ‘Let’s Make It Ours’, “bringing together voices from across the disability movement to reflect on achievements, confront remaining gaps, and help shape the future.” Similarly, as a coalition of disability and disarmament advocates and stakeholders, we are convinced that bringing disability into the centre from the margins of disarmament would fill one of the most important, currently glaring ‘gaps,’ in a manner enabling all of humanity to more effectively confront some of the worst threats we all face.
Conversely, a recent guide on ‘Advancing Humanitarian Disarmament: Strategies for Campaigning in Challenging Times’, issued by the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic and partners, urged campaigns to “build partnerships with movements focused on related issues to highlight intersections, and reach new audiences.” “The racial justice and environmental movements,” the guide argues, “both share concerns with humanitarian disarmament campaigns,” with one terrifying new topic being autonomous weapons (and related surveillance-tech) that “threaten to discriminate by race as well as other statuses due to algorithmic biases.” As many disability rights activists are warning, disability is one of those “other statuses,” deserving to be named and foregrounded, just as disability deserves recognition as a vital dimension of the search for racial and climate justice.
The world needs a new, disability-inclusive disarmament diplomacy: it’s not good enough to say ‘give peace a chance’ without giving everyone a say in shaping what that peace might be, and a chance to help design and build it.
May 2, 2026: Article on Disability Rights and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
The article (Cascades of Harm, Cascades of Care: Disability Rights and Nuclear (In)justice) by Dr. Sean Howard and Dr. Tammy Bernasky, appeared in NPT News in Review (Vol 21., No. 2), published by the Reaching Critical Will programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Entitled ‘Cascades of Harm, Cascades of Care: Disability Rights and Nuclear (In)justice,’ the piece recommends that delegates attending the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference being held at the UN in New York from April 27-May 22 adopt a rights-based, disability-inclusive approach to addressing the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear use, testing, and violence. As the authors argue: “Rather than simply “looking after” persons whose disabilities are caused or compounded by nuclear violence, care must be taken to ensure that their rights—alongside those of other affected individuals and communities—are placed at the centre of relevant decision- and policy-making processes.”
March 14, 2026: Article on ‘Importing Disability Rights into the Arms Trade Treaty’
The article (Importing Disability Rights into the Arms Trade Treaty) by Dr. Sean Howard and Dr. Tammy Bernasky, published on the ‘Disarmament Dialogue’ section on the Humanitarian Disarmament website, is the first contribution by the Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative (DRDI) to the review and implementation of the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Timed to coincide with meetings of the treaty’s three Working Groups in Geneva March 16-18, the article makes the case for disability rights, perspectives, and inclusion to be integrated into the treaty’s inaugural 5-Year Plan, currently under consideration and due to be adopted by the ATT’s 116 member states in 2027. Long overdue, such disability mainstreaming, Howard and Bernasky argue, is not only a moral imperative for a treaty dedicated to “reducing human suffering”, but can help advance the ATT’s core aims and objectives, strengthening the case for its universalization and thus effectiveness as ban on the irresponsible arms transfers currently fueling so many conflicts.
November 3, 2025: Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Holds Landmark Session on Disability Rights
At the request of the Disability Rights and Disarmament Initiative, the TPNW’s Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) convened a session on disability rights in relation to the implementation and review of the treaty’s efforts to redress the historic and ongoing impacts and harms of nuclear use and testing.
The session, chaired by Dr. Zia Mian of Princeton University, heard first from Dr. Tammy Bernasky, who outlined the central importance of the Convention on the Rights and Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in ensuring the maximum meaningful inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in the design and provision of victim assistance programmes, in alignment with the Convention’s rights-based approach and social model.
Dr. Sean Howard then placed the issue of disability rights in the TPNW in the broader context of disability rights and disarmament across the UN system, arguing that addressing the topic seriously had the potential to increase awareness of, and support for, humanitarian disarmament treaties such as the TPNW. Howard also made an appeal for ‘expertise’ in addressing nuclear impacts – especially in the work of the SAG – to be defined expansively enough to include persons with disabilities caused and/or compounded by nuclear violence who may not have had the opportunity to attain high academic and scientific qualifications. To exclude them from the process of assessing their own experience, needs, and priorities, he argued, would be a grave disservice in violation of the CRPD.
A constructive, supportive, and wide-ranging discussion followed. For more information on the SAG’s work, including the November 3 session, please see here.
