Draft Article 22
RIGHT TO WORK ^{86, 87, 88}

States Parties recognise the right of persons with disabilities to work, which includes the opportunity to gain a living by work that they freely choose or accept, with a view to promoting equal opportunity and treatment of persons with disabilities, and protecting them from poverty. States Parties shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realisation of this right, including measures to:

• promote a labour market and work environment that are open, inclusive, and accessible to all persons with disabilities; ⁸⁹
• enable persons with disabilities to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programs, placement services, assistive devices, and vocational and continuing training;
• promote⁹⁰ employment opportunities and career advancement for persons with disabilities in the open labour market, including opportunities for self-employment and starting one's own business, as well as assistance in finding, obtaining and maintaining employment;
• encourage employers⁹¹ to hire persons with disabilities, such as through affirmative action programs, incentives and quotas;⁹²
• ensure the reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities in the workplace and work environment;⁹³
• promote the acquisition by persons with disabilities of work experience in the open labour market;
• promote vocational and professional rehabilitation, job retention and return-to-work programs;
• protect⁹⁴ through legislation persons with disabilities with regard to employment, continuance of employment, career advancement, working conditions, including equal remuneration for work of equal value and equal opportunities, and the redressing of grievances,⁹⁵ and to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to exercise their labour and trade union rights;
• ensure that persons with disabilities have equal opportunity to employment in the public sector;
• promote recognition⁹⁶ of the skills, merits, abilities and contributions of persons with disabilities to the workplace and the labour market, and to combat stereotypes and prejudices about persons with disabilities in the workplace and the labour market.

Footnotes:

86: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider the potential role of the International Labour Organisation in implementing and monitoring the right to work under this Convention.

87: Some members of the Working Group raised the issue of a need to address the special circumstances of women with disabilities in fulfilling this right.

88: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider whether broad terms in which this draft Article is expressed are consistent with the detailed provisions of other articles of the draft Convention. The Committee may also wish to consider in this context whether further thought should be given to elaborating provisions for the training of persons with disabilities.

89: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider whether to spell out the meaning of this provision in practice and the further definition of the term 'inclusive' in this context. In this context, too, the Committee may wish to consider whether transportation to the workplace for persons with disabilities is covered under the provision of access to the workplace under draft Article 19.

90: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider the addition of the phrase 'pursue active labour market policies', at the beginning of this subparagraph.

91: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider the appropriateness of specifying the particular responsibility of governments as employers in this context.

92: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider the appropriateness of specifically mentioning quotas as a possible measure in this draft Article.

93: Some members of the Working Group emphasised the particular importance of the obligation to make reasonable accommodation in the employment context, and considered that a more detailed paragraph on reasonable accommodation should be elaborated under the right to work, in addition to any draft article on reasonable accommodation elsewhere in the Convention.

94: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider this formulation to take into account the protection of persons with disabilities from disguised discrimination in the workplace, such as stipulating unnecessary qualifications that have the effect of excluding persons with disabilities from employment.

95: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to consider whether the listing of working conditions here may be inadvertently limiting.

96: The Ad Hoc Committee may wish to expand on the idea of recognition to encompass the formal recognition of the skills of persons with disabilities.

Relevant references:

International human rights conventions and legal instruments

Disability-specific instruments

Jurisprudence of human rights treaty bodies

Other documents

Summary of discussions at the Working Group

Comments on the draft text

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