What is it?
As stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), disability is an evolving concept. Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.
Article 11 of the CRPD covers the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.
Persons with disabilities are often disproportionally affected by humanitarian crises and natural disasters and remain among the most vulnerable. Persons with disabilities often face barriers that prevent them from benefiting from emergency assistance in a meaningful manner. Also, disability can intersect with other barriers linked to gender, age, or ethnic origin.
Disability inclusion, therefore, aims to consider the specific needs of persons with disabilities to ensure the effective access and participation of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action.
Why is this important?
It is estimated that 16% of the global population has a disability. This proportion is likely to sharply increase in humanitarian crises.
Yet, ways of delivering assistance and protection to persons with disabilities in humanitarian settings remain insufficiently adapted. And despite gaining prominence over recent years, disability inclusion in humanitarian action remains insufficient.
Due to discrimination and environmental, physical, economic and social barriers, people with disabilities are more likely to be excluded from emergency responses and humanitarian services. They also face additional threats and vulnerabilities. For example, not everyone can hear the warning or has a chance to flee. Therefore, persons with disabilities are often forgotten at the onset of emergencies.
The EU is committed to fostering disability inclusion. To ensure their full inclusion and participation in humanitarian action, the specific needs of people with disabilities must be considered. The barriers they face need to be removed and their impact mitigated through protective factors and enablers permitting access to and participation in humanitarian assistance.
How are we helping?
The EU is party to CRPS (2010). In line with the CRPD, the EU is committed to provide inclusive humanitarian assistance.
Policy
Making humanitarian aid inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities remains our priority.
The EU has endorsed the World Humanitarian Summit’s Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2016).
The EU promotes meaningful implementation of the 4 must-do actions identified by the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2019), namely:
- promote meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their organizations
- remove barriers
- empower persons with disabilities
- disaggregate data for monitoring inclusion.
In 2019, the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department published operational guidelines on disability inclusion. Their purpose is to ensure that the needs of disabled people are taken into consideration in all projects supported by EU humanitarian aid.
The guidelines provide tools to assess and remove barriers preventing meaningful access and full and effective participation of disabled people in humanitarian assistance and protection. The aim is to lead to better programme quality and improved, safer and more accessible services, assistance and protection for persons with disabilities in humanitarian operations. The guidance recognises persons with disabilities as rights-holders able to claim their rights. Our humanitarian partners can also access a dedicated e-learning on this topic.
In 2021, the EU published a new European Disability Strategy. The Strategy commits to ensuring that the needs of persons with disabilities are adequately addressed in EU external action by involving persons with disabilities, cooperating with civil society, and supporting capacity building.
Also in 2021, the Humanitarian Aid Communication included provisions on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian assistance and protection.
International engagements
The Global Disability Summit (GDS) represents a central event for the international community and for the EU, to take stock of the progress made and to foster disability-inclusive development cooperation and humanitarian action.
In GDS 2022, the EU announced a set of commitments, including related to humanitarian aid. The EU has committed to taking into account the specific needs of persons with disabilities to ensure their full participation in humanitarian action, including in emergency preparedness activities. The EU has also committed to supporting capacity building of its humanitarian partners on disability inclusion, strengthening data collection on persons with disabilities assisted by EU-funded humanitarian aid, supporting inclusive education in crises, awareness raising around the principles of non-discrimination and inclusiveness, and pursuing dialogue with the Organisations of Persons with Disabilities.
The EU is engaging in the preparation of the upcoming GDS 2025, starting from its active participation in the European Regional Disability Summit in December 2024.
The EU is a member of the Global Action on Disability Network (GLAD), a coordination body of donors and agencies, public and private foundations, key coalitions of the disability movement with a common interest in achieving inclusive international development and humanitarian action. In 2023, the EU organised the annual GLAD network meeting in Brussels.
Funding
The EU works towards mainstreaming disability inclusion in all projects, as well as providing targeted assistance.
The needs of persons with disabilities are to be mainstreamed across all types of humanitarian interventions. Disability inclusion should not be solely a responsibility for specialised disability rights organisations, but it should be a task for all humanitarian actors.
Besides the mainstreaming efforts, several humanitarian projects also include targeted actions to address disability-induced threats and vulnerabilities.
The projects covered education, protection, shelter, water and sanitation, cash assistance, or disaster risk reduction, among other areas. They were implemented across the globe.
Recent examples of EU-funded actions with disability inclusion as one of the focus areas include:
- Provision of assistive devices, rehabilitation services and specialized support;
- Ensuring better access to and quality of health services for persons with disabilities, including referral services;
- Direct material assistance, including cash top-ups, to persons with disabilities in support of mobility, dignity and ability to mitigate protection risks;
- Focus on the specific needs of persons with disabilities and access to rights thanks to legal aid, specialized inclusive case management and victim assistance;
- Inclusive education and accessible learning environment, including the provision of adequate educational material and equipment to support children with disabilities;
- Accessibility and rehabilitation of WASH infrastructures and shelter.
Since 2019 the EU has applied the disability marker established by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. It allows us to track projects specifically targeting the needs of persons with disabilities or mainstreaming disability throughout the response.
Over the past few years, we have observed a steady progress regarding inclusiveness of our projects.
In 2023, 50% of the projects funded by the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations took into consideration and mainstreamed the needs of persons with disabilities, and 6% of the funded humanitarian aid projects specifically targeted persons with disabilities.
In 2024, about 50% of the projects funded by the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations took into consideration and mainstreamed the needs of persons with disabilities, and 8% of the funded humanitarian aid projects specifically targeted persons with disabilities.
Last updated: 03/04/2025