Promoting and Mainstreaming Easy-to-Understand Communication for Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities

A/RES/77/240No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68Promotion and protection of human rights, published in 2022.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Access to Information Accessibility Guidelines Information Dissemination Persons with Disabilities

What does this mandate say?

9 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its key role, including in promoting the development, implementation, dissemination and mainstreaming of accessibility resources, tools and solutions, as well as information and communications, for all persons who may need them, including for persons with intellectual disabilities, with a view to ensuring the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities, on an equal basis with others;

Urges Member States to redouble efforts to address obstacles and barriers to accessibility in information, communications and other services, including electronic services, emergency services and assistive technologies, to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, including in public, political, economic, cultural, social and family life;

Highlights the global concerns about the rapid spread and proliferation of disinformation, and underlines the need for the dissemination of factual, timely, clear, accessible, multilingual and evidence-based information, and the importance of providing and promoting access to such information as a tool to counter disinformation;

Calls upon Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities can exercise the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on an equal basis with others, and through all forms of communication of their choice, including by providing information intended for the general public to persons with disabilities in accessible formats and using technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities, such as easy-to-understand communication, in a timely manner and without additional cost to those using those formats;

Underlines that information presented in easy-to-understand communication can benefit everyone, in particular persons with intellectual disabilities and persons with reading difficulties, including persons belonging to minorities;

Decides to hold a half-day meeting, to be convened by the President of the General Assembly, within existing resources or through voluntary contributions, on the margins of the sixteenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to exchange views and identify and discuss good practices on the role of easy-to-understand communication in enabling persons with disabilities to live independently and to fully, equally and meaningfully participate in all aspects of life, including in political and public life, and fulfil all their human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with others, with the participation of persons with intellectual disabilities and their representative organizations;

Requests the Secretary-General, within existing reporting obligations, and within existing resources or through voluntary contributions, to address the development, use and implementation of easy-to-understand language as an accessibility resource and tool for persons with disabilities and to present recommendations on guidelines and best practices, to be submitted during the seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly, in consultation with and ensuring the active engagement and participation of persons with intellectual disabilities and their representative organizations, as well as relevant United Nations entities, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, and other stakeholders such as civil society and representative organizations;

Also requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of all Governments, regional intergovernmental organizations, the United Nations system, and processes including the Steering Committee on Accessibility and the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly;

Further requests the Secretary-General to produce a version of the present resolution in an accessible format and with easy-to-understand language, in close consultation with Member States and with persons with intellectual disabilities and their representative organizations.

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