Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

List of issues in relation to the initial report of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic *

A.Purpose and general obligations (arts. 1–4)

1.Please provide information on the efforts to harmonize concepts and terminology with the Convention in national laws and public policies, including the new Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2019) and the Decree on Persons with Disabilities (2014), and to consistently use the terminology “persons with disabilities”. Please include information on the measures to replace the medical and charity models of disability with the human rights model of disability in all national laws and policies.

2.Please inform the Committee about the measures to closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities, including persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of legislation, policies and other measures relevant to the Convention.

3.Please provide information on the progress made to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention.

B.Specific rights (arts. 5–30)

Equality and non-discrimination (art. 5)

4.Please provide information on the measures taken to review the Constitution and all relevant national laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability (including against persons affected by leprosy), comprising denial of reasonable accommodation, as well as multiple and intersectional discrimination on other grounds, such as age, gender or ethnicity.

Women with disabilities (art. 6)

5.Please provide information and data about the specific measures taken to eliminate multiple and intersectional discrimination and stigmatization against women and girls with disabilities, in line with the Convention and the Committee’s general comment No. 3 (2016) on women and girls with disabilities, especially those belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, women victims of unexploded ordnance, and persons affected by leprosy, in all spheres of their life, including education, employment and health care. Please also provide information on the budget available for the Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre.

6.Please provide information on the measures taken to support and empower women’s leadership in representative organizations and in building their own organizations. Please also provide information on the close consultation and active involvement of women with disabilities, including through their representative organizations, and on the measures taken to strengthen such organizations.

Children with disabilities (art. 7)

7.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Protect the rights of and ensure comprehensive support, including physical and psychological, for children with disabilities, especially children affected by unexploded ordnance, children belonging to ethnic minorities, children from families who have been internally displaced or refugee children;

(b)Eliminate leprosy, which has been increasing among children.

8.Please provide information about the financial support, if any, available to the Association for Autism, established to support autistic children.

Awareness-raising (art. 8)

9.Please provide information on the measures taken to raise awareness, in urban and rural areas, particularly among persons with disabilities, their parents, families and relevant professional groups, regarding the rights and dignity of all persons with disabilities, including persons affected by leprosy, and to combat stereotypes, prejudice and harmful practices against them in all areas of life.

Accessibility (art. 9)

10.Please provide information on:

(a)The implementation of the Law on Construction to enable persons with disabilities to access facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas, including access to public transportation and buildings;

(b)Implementation of the Decree on Persons with Disabilities to promote and to provide access to information and communications technology for all persons with disabilities.

Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies (art. 11)

11.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Develop inclusive and accessible disaster risk reduction policies, programmes and strategies with a gender-balanced participation of organizations of persons with disabilities, including their effective participation in the National Disaster Prevention and Control Committee;

(b)Strengthen the protection and safety of persons with disabilities, including those belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and victims of unexploded ordnance, in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies, especially given the context of climate change.

Equal recognition before the law (art. 12)

12.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Amend the Law on Criminal Procedure, the Law on Civil Procedure and the Penal Code to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities to equal recognition before the law, in particular persons with disabilities belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and victims of unexploded ordnance;

(b)Replace substituted decision-making regimes with the implementation of supported decision-making mechanisms.

Access to justice (art. 13)

13.Please provide information on:

(a)The measures taken to include procedural and age-appropriate accommodations in national legislation regarding access to the judicial and administrative systems, and whether this includes all physical facilities, information and communication procedures used in the administration of justice, and the obligation to accommodate persons with disabilities, particularly persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and persons who are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing;

(b)Whether persons with disabilities have access to free legal aid in accessible formats;

(c)The content and the legal framework used for the training and seminars referred to in the State party’s report (CRPD/C/LAO/1, para. 69).

Liberty and security of the person (art. 14)

14.Please provide information on:

(a)Whether any law in the State party authorizes the deprivation of liberty and forced treatment on the basis of actual or perceived impairment. If so, please inform the Committee of any measures to amend and repeal such provisions to comply with the Convention, taking into account the Committee’s guidelines on article 14;

(b)Whether there is a data collection system that records the deprivation of liberty of persons with disabilities, disaggregated by disability, age and sex. Please include, in particular, any initiatives to collect data on the involuntary stay of children with disabilities in any type of institution, including asylums, in particular for children with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities and autistic children.

Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (art. 15)

15.Please inform the Committee about the mechanisms to prevent, investigate and prosecute situations of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons with disabilities, including medical or scientific experimentation without free and informed consent, and measures to establish a complaints mechanism and provide redress.

Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse (art. 16)

16.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)End all forms of violence against persons with disabilities, and on concrete measures to protect persons with disabilities from all forms of violence, prosecute those responsible for such violence, monitor any such cases in the justice system and provide redress;

(b)Prevent the occurrence of all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including gender-based, domestic, and sexual violence, against persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, persons affected by leprosy and victims of unexploded ordnance;

(c)Provide the necessary recovery, safe environment, rehabilitation and social reintegration services to victims;

(d)Implement the existing legislation and policies to ensure the reporting, investigation and prosecution of exploitation, violence, including gender-based violence, and abuse of persons with disabilities.

17.Please provide information on the concrete steps taken to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment in all settings for children that also affect children with disabilities.

Protecting the integrity of the person (art. 17)

18.Please provide information on the legislative, judicial and administrative measures taken to prohibit violations of the physical and mental integrity of persons with disabilities when they are discriminated against, imprisoned or restricted to a given area, particularly persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities and persons affected by leprosy.

Living independently and being included in the community (art. 19)

19.Please provide information on the steps taken, including policies and programmes, to end segregated living environments for persons with disabilities, to promote their right to live independently and be included in the community and to provide access to community-based services for persons with disabilities, in particular regarding persons with disabilities belonging to ethnic and religious minorities.

Personal mobility (art. 20)

20.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Ensure that persons with disabilities, including those living in rural areas, are able to gain access to, and can afford to buy, high-quality assistive technologies and devices;

(b)Provide repair services for personal assistive and mobility devices, and on the measures adopted to give training on mobility skills to persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, and specialist staff.

21.Please provide information on the financial support available to the Centre of Medical Rehabilitation and the provincial rehabilitation centres to which the State party delegated the task of producing and providing assistive devices.

Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information (art. 21)

22.Please provide information on the measures to promote the adoption of a national sign language in close consultation with the deaf community.

23.Please provide information on:

(a)The steps taken to guarantee the accessibility of information by persons with disabilities, including in Braille, sign language, Easy Read and other alternative and augmentative means and modes of communication;

(b)The measures taken to ensure the training of sign language interpreters;

(c)The steps taken to ensure that websites open or provided to the public are accessible and comply with the standards developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium;

(d)Any initiative to renew funding for the radio programme for persons with disabilities that was cancelled in 2010 due to insufficient funding.

Respect for home and the family (art. 23)

24.Please provide information on the measures and concrete steps taken to prevent concealment, abandonment, neglect and segregation of children with disabilities by their families. Please also provide information on the support available to children with disabilities and to parents with disabilities, including parents with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, to fulfil their parental role and not to have their children removed from their care, on the basis of disability.

Education (art. 24)

25.Please provide information on:

(a)The measures taken to revise article 25 of the Law on Education, which allows for the establishment of segregated education (special schools) for persons with disabilities;

(b)The allocation of sufficient material, financial and human resources to ensure quality inclusive education at all levels;

(c)The efforts to transition from segregated education (special schools) to inclusive education environments;

(d)The level of financial and human resources allocated for the training of teachers on inclusive education, Braille, sign language interpretation and other support services to promote quality inclusive education, in both rural and urban settings;

(e)The provision of accessible materials, adaptive learning environments and sufficient individualized accommodation for students with disabilities at all levels, especially those residing in remote areas and those belonging to ethnic minority groups.

Health (art. 25)

26.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure:

(a)That the implementation of the right to health of persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, is gender-sensitive and age-appropriate and ensures access to quality and free or affordable health care and equipment, including sexual and reproductive health programmes for adults and children, and to other public health programmes in urban, rural and remote areas;

(b)The free and informed consent of persons with disabilities, in particular persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and women and children with disabilities, for any form of medical or psychiatric treatment or procedure;

(c)That the National Health Insurance Strategy 2017–2020 provides for health insurance for all persons with disabilities and training for professional health-care personnel on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Habilitation and rehabilitation (art. 26)

27.Please provide information on how the State party guarantees that persons with disabilities do not bear the cost of habilitation and rehabilitation, the measures taken to promote comprehensive and community-based rehabilitation programmes for persons with disabilities, including those affected by leprosy, and victims of unexploded ordnance, particularly in rural and remote areas. Also, please provide information on the progress in implementing the National Disability Inclusive Health and Rehabilitation Strategy 2015 and Action Plan.

Work and employment (art. 27)

28.Please provide information on:

(a)The employment rates of persons with disabilities, disaggregated by age, sex and disability, in both open and sheltered employment;

(b)The prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability, including the denial of individualized reasonable accommodation, in work and employment, and on the measures taken to promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market;

(c)The specific measures, including affirmative actions, to ensure job placement and job retention for persons with disabilities, in particular women with disabilities, in the public and private sectors.

Adequate standard of living and social protection (art. 28)

29.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Ensure access to social protection and support for persons with disabilities and to reduce poverty among persons with disabilities, including victims of unexploded ordnance, persons with disabilities belonging to ethnic minorities, persons affected by leprosy and persons with disabilities living in rural and remote areas;

(b)Guarantee to persons affected by leprosy the benefits provided by national legislation on disability, such as monthly allowances and other forms of support;

(c)Enhance socioeconomic opportunities for persons with disabilities, including through the Ninth Five-Year National Socioeconomic Development Plan 2021–2025, the National Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, and the Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Plan.

Participation in political and public life (art. 29)

30.Please provide information about the measures taken to actively promote an environment in which persons with disabilities can fully participate in the conduct of public affairs, including participating in political life and public decision-making at all levels and participating actively in their representative organizations, without discrimination.

Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport (art. 30)

31.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Increase the participation of all persons with disabilities, including women and children with disabilities belonging to ethnic minorities, in cultural life, leisure, recreational and sports activities, and on the measures to eliminate social and environmental barriers hindering their participation;

(b)Ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled.

C.Specific obligations (arts. 31–33)

Statistics and data collection (art. 31)

32.Please provide information on the steps taken to put in place a comprehensive data collection system on persons with disabilities, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, ethnicity, geographic location, socioeconomic status and other characteristics relevant in the national or subnational context, and the measures taken to provide safeguards, including legislation on data protection, to ensure confidentiality and respect for the privacy of persons with disabilities. Please inform the Committee whether the Washington Group short set of questions on disability was included in the 2015 Population and Housing Census.

International cooperation (art. 32)

33.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the planning, implementation and monitoring of international cooperation activities, including with regard to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Please also provide information about the plan of action on programming and policies to implement the rights of persons with disabilities in the national development framework in line with the 2030 Agenda.

National implementation and monitoring (art. 33)

34.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to fulfil the obligations of the State party under article 33. Please provide an update on the work undertaken by the National Committee for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, established in 2013, and explain the involvement of organizations of persons with disabilities in the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention.