Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Nordic region – Article 31

According to Article 31, States shall collect and disseminate statistics and research data in order to enable monitoring of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Despite this commitment, there is currently a significant lack of comparable and systematically compiled statistics in the Nordic region on how the convention is being implemented in practice. This hinders both national monitoring and the exchange of experiences within the Nordic region and limits the ability to follow development over time in areas such as education, employment, discrimination and accessibility.

Mission

The Nordic Welfare Centre’s mission is to promote and support Nordic cooperation that contributes to a socially inclusive, sustainable and competitive Nordic region. Within the framework of this mission, the Nordic Welfare Centre is conducting the project Implementation of the CRPD in the Nordic region – Article 31 on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The project is part of the realisation of the Nordic Programme for Cooperation on Disability Issues 2023–2027 and aims to strengthen Nordic cooperation on the follow-up of the CRPD.

Objectives and scope

The purpose of the project is to improve knowledge, methods, and coordination concerning the implementation and monitoring of the Convention in the Nordic countries.

The project will contribute to increased access to comparable and gender-disaggregated statistics and to a comprehensive overview of how the Convention is being implemented in the Nordic region. This will strengthen the conditions for evidence-based policy, learning between countries and monitoring of both the CRPD and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The project is being carried out in collaboration with Nordregio.

The project includes:

• mapping of national strategies, action plans and methods for implementing the CRPD in the Nordic countries, as well as relevant research, evaluations and experiences
• mapping how organisations of persons with disabilities and civil society are involved in the implementation work
• identifying and developing comparable Nordic statistics in areas such as discrimination, education, employment and accessibility
• exchanging knowledge and experience between Nordic actors through seminars, workshops and webinars

The project builds on previous Nordic work on indicators for disability policy and is being carried out in collaboration with national authorities, researchers, Nordic statistics committees and the European Disability Expertise group (EDE), among others.