...despite reports that the North Korean government has killed infants with disabilities, forced the disappearance of children with disabilities, and willfully neglected prisoners with disabilities resulting in their deaths, the UN Commission of Inquiry established to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed by North Korea “barely noted” these abuses.4 Forced sterilization has occurred in a wide range of countries, including India, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.5 Persons with disabilities are disproportionately and involuntarily institutionalized and thereby exposed to “serious risk of sexual and physical violence, sterilization and human trafficking,” as well as “a higher risk of being subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, including forced medication and electroshock, restraints and solitary confinement.” 6 The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the magnitude of the systematic violations committed against this group, as people in institutional settings experienced the highest rates of mortality7 due to neglect and segregation, and older persons and persons with disabilities represent the majority of institutionalized people globally.8 In addition, in many countries, they were at greater risk of discrimination in accessing healthcare and life-saving procedures during the pandemic outbreak, facing health care rationing decisions, including triage protocols (e.g. intensive care beds, ventilators), that left them with no medical service based on assumptions about quality or value of life based on disability.9 In the last two decades, international human rights law has begun to address the rights of persons with disabilities and the corresponding obligations of states. The international system must ensure equal access to justice for all persons with disabilities by providing the necessary substantive, procedural, and age- and gender-appropriate accommodations and support, in order to facilitate their effective role as direct and indirect participants, including as witnesses, in all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages. Article 13 of the Convention, which requires the parties to “ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations,” represents a paradigm shift in the legal recognition of the autonomy of persons with disabilities.14 In the justice system, persons with disabilities have often been considered to be unworthy of, unable to benefit from, or even likely to be harmed by due process protections provided to all other citizens.