The Task Force on Secretariat services, accessibility and use of information technology was established in July 2011. It is mandated to study issues related to the improvement of the secretariat services to the Council and its mechanisms, the accessibility to the Council’s work for persons with disabilities and the feasibility of the use of information technology.
During the 22nd session of the Council in March 2013, additional measures were put in place to enhance accessibility for persons with disabilities to the Human Rights Council, such as improved signage to access room XX and accessible toilets, as well as a priority access lane for persons with disabilities to enter the Palais the Nations at the Pregny gate.
The annual interactive debate of the Human Rights Council on the rights of persons with disabilities is made accessible by providing English captioning and simultaneous sign language interpretation in international sign. In addition, another panel among those held by the Human Rights Council is made accessible at each session, through funds that are raised or identified on an ad-hoc basis. For a list of all Human Rights Council panels that have been made accessible so far with links to the webcast archives, please click
here.
In 2014, the task force held a consultation with States, stakeholders, as well as with UN staff,
on existing practices on providing “reasonable accommodation” to persons with disabilities for their participation to meetings in the areas of information and communication technology, internet resources and documents, as well as access to buildings. The results of this consultation informed the work of the Task Force and fed into an awareness-raising training/workshop for UN staff members involved in the work of the Human Rights Council (Task Force recommendation, 30 e) in A/HRC/23/CRP.2). For a summary of the consultation, please click
here.
See more info
here.
Accessibility to the Human Rights Council discussions