The process of state party reporting to the CRPD committee: The indian experience

Abstract

Amita Dhanda provides an account of the preparation of the Indian Government’s State Report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of its monitoring obligations (Article 15-Reports by States Parties). She discusses how her Centre for Disability Studies, at the NALSAR (National Academy of Legal Studies and Research) University of Law, was contracted to prepare India’s State Report and discusses the political and ethical challenges involved in working with the Government, civil society and disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) in order to provide a comprehensive and balanced State Report. Dhanda considers the systemic factors that make the preparation of a useful and independent State Report challenging to fulfil and concludes with some suggestions as to what can be done to make State Reporting a deliberative process, rather than an inquisitorial exercise.