Article 22 [Respect for privacy]

This chapter examines Article 22 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on the Respect for privacy. More specifically, it provides an overview of the drafting history of this provision, which at the first stage of negotiations was merged into the article on the respect for home and the family (current Article 23). Then, it explores the scope and the normative content of Article 22 that align closely with privacy provisions contained in other international human rights instruments, especially Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that served as a model for this provision. Article 22, para. 1, protects persons with disabilities against arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home, correspondence or other types of communications as well as against unlawful attacks on their honour and reputation, regardless of where they reside or are temporarily housed. The provision is aimed primarily at protecting the right to privacy of persons with disabilities in all environments where they express their personality, regardless of where they live. Article 22, para. 2, protects the confidentiality of all information relating to the personal sphere, healthcare, and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities being sensitive data whose disclosure could constitute a violation of the right to privacy. The provision conforms to the most recent developments of the right to privacy, which includes an autonomous right to the protection of personal data. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the practice of the Human Rights Committee on Article 17 of the ICCPR were also examined as far as they were relevant to clarify the normative contents of Article 22 of the CRPD .