Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets two times a year in Geneva to consider the reports submitted by 153 UN member states on their compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to examine individual petitions concerning 85 States Parties to the .

The Committee is one of nine UN human rights treaty bodies, each responsible for overseeing the implementation of a particular treaty.

States that have ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol have agreed to allow persons within their jurisdiction to submit complaints to the Committee requesting a determination whether provisions of the Covenant have been violated.

All states parties are required to submit regular reports to the Committee outlining the legislative, judicial, policy and other measures they have taken to implement the rights affirmed in the Convention. The first report is due within two years of ratifying the Convention; thereafter reports are due every four years. The Committee will examine each report and address its concerns and recommendations to the state party in the form of “concluding observations”.

The members of the Committee, who must be "of high moral standing and recognized competence and experience in the field covered by the present Convention", are elected by the member states but on an individual basis, not as representatives of their countries. They serve four-year terms, with one-half of their number elected every second year.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights assists the work of the Committee.

Following the Convention coming into force on 3 May 2008, the initial membership of the Committee was elected by secret ballot at the first conference of states' parties to the Convention on 3 November 2008 in New York. The first chair, elected at the first session in February 2009, was Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, who was succeeded with effect from February 2010 by Ron McCallum. The current chair is Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, whose term lasts until the end of 2016.

The Committee initially consisted of 12 members, however once the Convention achieved 80 ratifications the Committee expanded to 18 members. Half of members were elected for two-year terms and half elected for four years. Thereafter, members are elected for four-year terms, with half the members elected every two years.

The membership of the Committee is as follows (as of March 2015):

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