Rusudan Kokhodze, Deputy Head of the Department of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the Public Defender's Office, took part in the annual meeting of the UNConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Working Group in Brussels, Belgium, on May 17-18, 2017. The meeting was organized by the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) and representatives of 14 European states, the European Network of Equality Bodies and the European Disability Forum participated in it.

The goal of the working group is to promote cooperation and experience-sharing between the national human rights institutions, the UN independent mechanisms for monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and equality bodies in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The strategic action plan for 2018-2020 and the competences of the working group were discussed at the meeting. Special attention was paid to the challenges faced by national institutions of various countries that had been named as independent monitoring bodies in accordance with Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the importance of cooperation between them.

The meeting was led by Sara Brunet, Head of the UNConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Working Group, and Debbie Kohner, Secretary General of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions.