UNGA80 3rd Committee
Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto
NB8 Explanation of Vote, delivered by Marcus Holknekt, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Sweden
20 November 2025
Chair,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Nordic-Baltic States.
We thank New Zealand and Mexico for their leadership on this resolution and for their courage to approach this year’s negotiations with the goal of making sure that all persons are included in the implementation of the CRPD.
By choosing the theme “amplified barriers in diverse contexts” you have challenged us to look at the different ways in which individuals may be inhibited from claiming their rights. And how individuals are facing a range of obstacles that intersect and reinforce each other, thereby deepening their exclusion. Thank you for taking this approach!
Chair,
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is nearing universal ratification. The number of accessions that we’ve seen since the convention was first adopted is one of the most positive and hopeful developments in the human rights field in the past years. Persons with disabilities – long marginalized or discriminated against in so many sectors of society and life – finally have an internationally agreed-upon tool to claim their rights.
As proud signatories to the CRPD, the Nordic-Baltic states want the convention to be a tool available for every person with disabilities, whoever they are and wherever they live. We want them to be able to claim their right with loud and clear voices, not have to whisper and beg because they may or may not belong to a group deemed “controversial”. That would be a kind of selectivity and discrimination that runs completely contrary to the idea of universal human rights. There are no provisions limiting the prohibition on discrimination to groups that are “internationally agreed”.
Similarly, the SDG-commitment is “leave no one behind”, not ”leave no one behind, except certain people”.
For Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden the message is simple. If persons with disabilities face barriers to enjoying their rights, we want to know what they are, and we want to address them. Full stop.
Chair,
Contrary to what one might believe after listening to the proponent of the amendment, the UN is almost entirely silent on the issue of LGBTI persons. Out of the thousands of texts we adopt at the General Assembly there are only two resolutions until today that refers to “sexual orientation and gender identity”. In both cases it is part of long listings of reasons that should not get you killed, suffer violence or be discriminated against. The bar is extremely low and we can’t even get agreement on preventing murder, violence or for people to enjoy their human rights and civil liberties.
It is deeply disheartening to witness, once again this year, the lengths to which certain delegations go to exclude persons in vulnerable situations from claiming and enjoyment of their human rights.
The problem is that facts do not care about opinions. The reality is clear: LGBTI persons with disabilities experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. This hinders their universal access to quality and affordable health services, social protection, sexual and reproductive health information, employment, justice, and education, including to comprehensive sexuality education.
For this reason, we welcome that the General Assembly has roundly rejected the amendment and this attempt to politicize human rights.
Thank you.
