11th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Promoting the right to decent work of persons with disabilities through Sustainable Development Goals

The ILO participated in the 11th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) under the overarching theme "Leaving no one behind through the full implementation of the CRPD".

News | 20 June 2018
Ratified by 177 countries, including most of ILO Member states, the CRPD provides the global framework on the rights of persons with disabilities, including provisions on the right to work and social protection. This year’s Conference of States Parties, which took place from 12 to 14 June 2018, highlighted the need to “Leave no one behind” in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Representatives from the ILO as well as from its tripartite constituency and the ILO Global Business and Disability Network played an active role in the conference and in some of its related side events.


The ILO statement at the conference underlined the importance of disaggregation of labour market information by disability status, using the questions of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. A disaggregation by disability status will allow countries to appropriately measure their progress in achieving the SDGs, including for SDG 8 on decent work. Disability-disaggregated data will be also one of the key issues discussed at the Global Disability Summit on 24 July 2018, hosted by the UK Department for International Development, the International Disability Alliance and the Government of Kenya.

In the area of social protection, the ILO informed the conference that, together with more than 15 partner organizations, the ILO has endorsed a joint statement on how to make social protection systems inclusive of persons with disabilities. The ILO, in collaboration with the International Disability Alliance and other key partners, will increase its efforts to provide technical advice on how to design and implement social protection systems that provide an adequate standard of living for persons with disabilities as well as benefits and services that are designed to support the labour market participation of persons with disabilities.

For the first time, the Conference of States Parties debated the importance of social dialogue. Organized by the ILO, Public Services International and the European Disability Forum, the side event “Advancing the rights of persons with disabilities through social dialogue” on 13 June allowed for sharing of good practices on social dialogue between ILO’s tripartite constituency and Disabled People’s Organizations.

Side events to the conference in which Disabled People's Organisations Denmark (DPOD) and BNP Paribas, both members of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network were involved, were “Private sector employment of persons with disabilities and labour market statistics on persons with disabilities”, organised by DPOD and the Danish Ministry of Children and Social Affairs, as well as “A tripartite experience of promoting decent work for people with disabilities”, organised by the ILO and the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN.