The European Union and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Story of Exclusive and Shared Competences

Abstract

The signature and conclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by the European Community (now European Union) marks a significant step forward in the protection of human rights by the EU. Whilst the EU has become a party to international treaties in the past, this is the first such accession to a human rights treaty. As a consequence, the conclusion of the CRPD by the EU raises many interesting questions, and the path to be followed by the EU in identifying which Convention obligations it is bound by, or should act on, and which obligations fall primarily within the responsibility of the Member States, is, as yet, untrod. This article is a first attempt to examine some of those issues and, specifically, to reflect on what factors will determine whether EU action to implement the Convention would be appropriate in those many areas that fall within the shared competence of the EU and the Member States.