Press releases, 12.06.2018

On 12 June 2018, the meeting of States parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York elected nine new members to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On taking his seat on the Committee in 2019, Markus Schefer will become the first Swiss member of this human rights body.

Markus Schefer is a professor of constitutional and administrative law at the University of Basel. He is a leading expert on fundamental and human rights as well as the rights of people with disabilities. Outside his academic career, he has gained considerable experience of how equality for people with disabilities can be achieved.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a treaty body under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which Switzerland acceded in 2014. The Committee is made up of 18 experts. It monitors and promotes the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In particular, it examines reports from the States parties on the progress they have made in meeting their commitments under the Convention.

Switzerland has supported Markus Schefer’s candidacy. With his legal skills and practical experience, he is ideally qualified to contribute to the coherent development and consolidation of the rights of people with disabilities in the context of human rights. This will also benefit Switzerland; on 9 May 2018, the Federal Council decided to expand its disability policy.


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