CRPD Shadow Reporting

State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) must send periodic reports to the CRPD Committee. The CRPD Committee regularly receives parallel, or "shadow," reports from civil society that frequently highlight gaps in State Parties' implementation of their CRPD obligations. Increasingly, self-advocates are taking advantage of this opportunity to share self-advocates' perspectives on CRPD implementation with the CRPD Committee. On April 14, 2021, our panel of self-advocates from Canada, Hungary, and Israel shared how self-advocates around the world are using shadow reports to make their voices heard and hold governments accountable. 

First, Yoav Kraiem of Beit Issie Shapiro explained his experiences supporting self-advocates who participated in a cross-disability coalition of organizations called the "Civil Society Forum" that prepared a common shadow report, in order to present a unified voice in front of the Israeli government. Ultimately, self-advocates that were invited to participate directly in the various working meetings of the Forum declined to do so because they felt they could not participate fully in a process where they had to fight to make their voices heard. Self-advocates working with Beit Issie Shapiro also were worried that their concerns would be drowned out by the many other organizations that could speak more quickly and would use difficult-to-understand language. Thus, Yoav tried to represent self-advocates' points of view in the Forum's meetings, and his efforts to involve self-advocates demonstrate the challenges to fostering truly inclusive coalitions. 

Second, Kory Earle of People First Canada shared that their shadow report was much more difficult than they had initially anticipated. As in Israel, many Canadian organizations came together to collaborate on a single report. At first, People First Canada encountered some difficulties making their voices heard in large meetings where many people were talking and using language that was difficult to understand. They pushed hard for accommodations and they insisted that the report produced by these organizations was also made available in plain language format. "We went from not having our voices heard to being heard." Although only the traditional version of their shadow report was submitted to the CRPD Committee, the plain language version has allowed self-advocates to better understand what that report says about their rights.

Last, László Bercse of the Hungarian Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities (ÉFOÉSZ). They submitted a plain language shadow report to the CRPD Committee, after their earlier experiences participating in another organization's effort to prepare a submission at the List of Issues stage of the CRPD Committee's periodic reporting process. After that experience, self-advocates wanted to prepare their own, separate report in easy-to-understand language. To prepare their own report, a group of self-advocates met for several months and focused on discussing two articles each week. They asked themselves which articles they felt were most important to them and focused on those issues. Since submitting the report, they have used it to educate self-advocates and allies about their rights. For example, ÉFOÉSZ is currently working with two universities to raise awareness about the report's contents. Reflecting on the process, Bercse shared, "I think that self-advocates including myself have learned a lot. We know our rights better now and I think that I would not change anything for the future."