United Nations Appeal
To: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
Email: crpd@ohchr.org,
From: Aman Azad
Founder, News4Deaf
Disability Rights Activist
Mumbai, India
Subject: Urgent Global Appeal for Online Prison Disability Data Access and Rights-based Detention Facilities Ensuring Justice and Dignity for blind, amputees deaf and mute and All Disabled Prisoners
Dear Honorable Members of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
I am writing as the Founder of News4Deaf and a lifelong advocate for the deaf, mute, and broader disabled community in India and globally. Through years of frontline community work, including the development of the world’s first universal SOS apps for emergency police and hospital communication specifically tailored for the deaf and mute, and through ongoing legal challenges (including Public Interest Litigation in India’s Supreme Court), I have witnessed the unique and systematic exclusion faced by disabled individuals particularly prisoners due to the lack of official recognition, data, and tailored support.
The Invisibility Crisis in Prisons
Despite the guarantee of equal rights under the CRPD, millions of persons with disabilities, including the deaf and mute, remain invisible and uncounted within justice systems across the world.
Governments world over including India do not publish or maintain online, disability segregated data on prisoners, resulting in a total lack of transparency, accountability, and support for these most marginalized groups. This means that lawyers, NGOs, and ordinary citizens cannot reliably identify or support disabled prisoners with urgently needed legal advocacy, financial assistance or rehabilitation.
Universal Data Gaps and Rights Violations
No online, public data on prisoners with hearing, speech, vision, mobility, intellectual, or psychosocial disabilities exists in most countries including India’s NCRB “Prison Statistics,” leaving families, legal aid organizations, and advocacy groups powerless to help.
Invisibility denies disabled prisoners equal access to justice, as pro bono lawyers cannot proactively identify those needing sign language, accessible formats, or reasonable accommodations.
Indiscriminate treatment means many disabled blind, amputees deaf and mute individuals suffer abuse, neglect, solitary confinement, or medical misdiagnosis in jails not designed to accommodate their needs. Deaf and mute prisoners, in particular, face extreme barriers and communication challenges often lead to punitive misinterpretation by authorities, and their support needs remain unmet by current prison protocols.
My Work for the Deaf and Mute Community
With News4Deaf, I have developed and freely distributed:
SOS apps enabling silent distress calls with location tracking, pre-written emergency text, and ISD-coded global reach ensuring that deaf and mute people can alert police in an emergency.
Advocacy for police training, sign language implementation in education, and accessible government welfare schemes for the hearing and speech disabled.
My ongoing Supreme Court litigation seeks the establishment of national flagging systems and government-issued identification for deaf and mute people, aiming to address their invisibility in public life and state records a mission directly relevant to the plight of disabled prisoners.
Global Recommendation and Appeal
I respectfully appeal to the Committee to take the following urgent steps, covering all disabilities hearing, speech, vision, physical, intellectual, psychosocial, and more:
Mandate National Online Disability Prisoner Databases
Recommend that all States Parties establish dynamic, public online databases of all disabled prisoners by type, facility, gender, and legal status, compliant with CRPD Article 31 and the Mandela Rules.
Require online updating so that ordinary citizens, disability NGOs, lawyers, and families can locate and support disabled detainees, offer legal representation, and monitor facilities for rights violations.
Facilitate Legal and Financial Support
Explicitly recognize open databases as enablers for global pro bono legal networks, humanitarian aid, and advocacy coalitions to provide direct support turning “invisible” prisoners into visible rights holders, not forgotten statistics.
Require Rights-based, Accessible Detention Facilities
Demand that all countries set standards and timelines for accessible prisons with sign language, Braille, ramps, adapted cells, communication access, assistive technology, and trained staff as a fundamental right and not a privilege.
Encourage governments to partner with department of prison and subject matter experts in designing inclusive, non segregated environments for all disabilities.
Enforce Monitoring, Training, and Oversight
Mandate ongoing independent monitoring, civil society reporting, and disability rights training for all police and prison staff to eliminate abuse and involuntary segregation.
Global Impact
The adoption of public, online disability prisoner data and accessible prison standards will :
Enable families and NGOs to offer timely legal and humanitarian intervention.
Prevent the isolation and systemic abuse of all disabled prisoners.
Advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and CRPD promises of “leaving no one behind”
Closing and Request for Committee Action
I seek your support to:
Issue an official General Comment recognizing public disability prisoner data systems and inclusive prison environments as CRPD obligations.
Add these areas to Concluding Observations, List of Issues, and international review processes.
Collaborate with advocates, including myself and organizations like News4Deaf, in ongoing consultations for implementation and monitoring.
As a person who has stood with and for the deaf and mute in India including those who are detained, marginalized, or in crisis I urge you to take this action for all persons with disabilities, everywhere.
Thank you for your attention and leadership. I would be honored to present this proposal in person or via video conference and to support the Committee in crafting guidelines, best practices, and monitoring tools to achieve these urgent reforms.
Respectfully submitted,
Aman Azad
Founder, News4Deaf
Disability Rights Activist,
Mumbai, India
