Speaking notes by the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Grigoriy Lekarev at the 10th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities "The Second Decade of the CRPD: Inclusion and full participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in the implementation of the Convention" (June 13-15, New York, USA)

Dear Mr. Chairman, the care for persons with disabilities is a constant element of the state social policy in the Russian Federation. It is aimed at providing them with equal opportunities with other citizens in the realization of all the categories of human rights.

A lot has been done since the Russian Federation ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities five years ago. The Russian legislation has been analysed and improved in order to incorporate the provisions of the Convention on barrier-free environment, inclusiveness and reasonable accommodation. In particular, the legislation which significantly affects the rights of people with disabilities has been substantially supplemented in 20 important spheres starting from education, culture, transport to employment and sport. More than 40 federal and 750 regional laws were amended.

Since 2011, the state programme "Accessibility" has been consistently implemented to establish barrier-free living conditions for persons with disabilities in the territory of the whole country. The programme will be operational until 2020. The main goal of the programme is to allow the persons with disabilities to be independent in day-to-day life. For example, the number of accessible priority facilities has increased by 3.5 times (from 14.4% to 50.7%). The number of general education institutions with a universal barrier-free environment to ensure inclusive education for the children with disabilities has increased by 4.5 times (from 4.6% to 20.8%).

Since July 1, 2016, the prohibition to construct and commission facilities and vehicles which are inaccessible for persons with disabilities has been established and strictly observed.

The federal programme of subtitling the main federal TV channels which is implemented within the framework of the "Accessibility" programme has been extended to the regional broadcasting. All the official websites of federal, regional and local authorities must have versions for visually impaired persons. This is very important for 240,000 visually impaired persons. The Federal Law of December 1, 2014 No. 419 obliges all the film distributors to subtitle and provide visual description to Russian films.

Mr. Chairman, the Russian Federation pays special attention to the employment of persons with disabilities. The Action Plan to increase the share of employed persons with disabilities in working age from 30% to 50% by 2020 was approved with the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 10, 2017 No. 893-p. To this end, the specific responsibilities of the labor authorities and business to promote the employment of persons with disabilities will be enshrined in the law.

Over the past year, a new system of statistical reporting indicators has been completed. It allows us to assess the implementation of the most important provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To this end, changes in the 49 existing forms of statistical reporting have been approved. Now the list of disability monitoring indicators includes almost 250 parameters.

In 2017, the Russian Federation has launched the federal on-line register of persons with disabilities which allows all the person with disabilities to have their personal accounts to get assistance in enjoying public services.

Thank you for your attention!

(с) Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation