Our Purpose and Values
Our Vision
To develop a unified voice for the implementation of disability rights and equality for Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) and persons with disabilities across the 56 countries of the Commonwealth.
Guiding Principle
Nothing About Us Without Us.
The Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum (CDPF) serves as a unifying platform for disabled-led organisations and individuals across the Commonwealth. We bring together DPOs and their members irrespective of impairment type, gender, age, race, sexuality, indigenous or geographical background, religion, or political affiliation.
Our work focuses on amplifying collective voices and advocating for the promotion and equalisation of opportunities for all disabled people.
CDPF is committed to engaging with and influencing Commonwealth institutions, governments, and decision-making spaces, including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Our advocacy aligns with the principles of inclusion, equality, and empowerment, ensuring that disability rights remain central to the Commonwealth Charter and agenda. Our foundation is rooted in the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, and its recognition by Commonwealth Heads of Government in the Kampala Statement of 2007.
In March 2008, a founding Conference was held in London with representatives and youth representatives from 21 Commonwealth Country DPOs. An Executive was elected, a constitution was adopted, and a workplan developed and a reception was held at Marlborough House. CDPF functioned until 2013 with meetings of their Executive, interventions at various conferences and delivery of UNCRPD Training in the Pacific in 2012. However, due to lack of funding and organisational problems, a hiatus occurred until 2018 when a side meeting was held at the Global Summit on Disability in London and a commitment was made to restart CDPF.
The relaunch of the CDPF took place in New York in June 2019, bringing together representatives from 29 Commonwealth countries. Representatives from four additional countries were unable to attend after being denied visas. With a newly elected Executive Committee, an amended Constitution, and a renewed work programme, supported by funding from the Disability Rights Fund (DRF), the CDPF entered a period of growth, strengthening its capacity and expanding its reach.
While important progress has been made over the years, disabled people across the Commonwealth continue to experience systemic exclusion and persistent inequalities. CDPF exists to challenge these barriers and advance a Commonwealth where the rights, dignity, voices, and full potential of all disabled people are recognised, respected, and realised.
Organisational reach and momentum
CDPF now brings together 52 national umbrella bodies across 52 Commonwealth countries plus 59 associates and is continuing to grow year on year. Since re-engaging in 2019, CDPF reports steady progress in strengthening its governance, advocacy and programme activity at the Commonwealth level.
Strategic policy agenda and advocacy
UNCRPD implementation: While 55 of the 56 Commonwealth countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), implementation remains uneven. Legal reform, accessibility, and the provision of reasonable accommodation continue to be inconsistent across many member states, leaving disabled people facing persistent barriers to equal participation and inclusion.
Commonwealth Disability Inclusion Action Plan: In the lead-up to CHOGM 2024 in Samoa, CDPF proposed a Commonwealth Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) to accelerate the practical implementation of disability rights across the Commonwealth. Developed in response to limited progress reported by Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) in member countries, the DIAP seeks to ensure that disabled people can fully and equally participate in society, free from discrimination, exploitation, and exclusion.
The Action Plan promotes concrete progress in areas including independent living, inclusive education and healthcare, political participation, employment, accessibility, and disability-inclusive responses to climate-induced and humanitarian emergencies.
Following more than three years of sustained advocacy and campaigning, the Commonwealth Disability Inclusion Action Plan is expected to be considered by Commonwealth Law Ministers and advanced for adoption at CHOGM 2026. The process has involved collaboration between 17 Commonwealth governments, representative disabled people, and a Youth Disability Network, reflecting a shared commitment to disability inclusion across the Commonwealth.
Climate justice: CDPF and its members have consistently highlighted the near absence of disability inclusion in climate negotiations, including inaccessible venues, lack of sign language interpretation, and the exclusion of disabled people from national climate decision-making processes. CDPF advocates for disability-inclusive climate governance, financing, data systems, emergency preparedness, and disaster response.
SDGs and development: Drawing on the UN Disability and Development Report 2024, CDPF advocates for urgent action to ensure disabled people are not left behind in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Without significant progress in health, education, gender equality, employment, urban accessibility, and climate action, the SDGs will remain out of reach for many disabled people by 2030.
National change and models of good practice
CDPF supports the sharing of promising practices and policy innovations across Commonwealth countries, helping to advance disability rights through learning, collaboration, and advocacy.
Barbados: Advancing Disability Rights through Law and Policy
Barbados has demonstrated significant progress in disability inclusion, moving from ratification of the UNCRPD in 2013 to the adoption of a National Disability Policy in 2024 and a Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in January 2025. This progress was shaped through an inclusive process involving an eight-person committee led by people with lived experience, and extensive consultations Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), government ministries, trade unions, the private sector, and the wider public. It includes a costed 10-point strategy to 2030.
Barbados is also embedding disability non-discrimination within its constitutional reform process, backed by dedicated National Disabilities Advocates within government.
Nigeria: Disability-Inclusive Climate Action
In Nigeria, a women-led Organisation of Persons with Disabilities (OPD) has advanced disability-inclusive climate justice through research, advocacy, and leadership development. Working with more than ten government ministries and training over 500 women with disabilities, the initiative has highlighted disability gaps in climate and environmental policies while promoting inclusive early warning systems and gender-responsive climate action.
Youth leadership, neurodiversity and intersectionality
CDPF is committed to strengthening the leadership and participation of disabled youth and underrepresented groups within the disability movement, recognising that meaningful inclusion requires an intersectional and rights-based approach.
Youth Forum growth: The Commonwealth Disabled Youth Forum continues to expand as a platform for young disabled leaders, now connecting more than 166 young disabled people across the Commonwealth. Through a capacity-building webinar series and peer engagement with over 150 participants, the Forum is supporting young people to strengthen advocacy skills, leadership, and participation, with plans to establish a youth-led grant-making programme in the coming year.
Leave No Learner Behind: In Uganda, the Leave No Learner Behind initiative is demonstrating the power of youth-led inclusion by working with schools to transform attitudes and practices so that learners with disabilities are welcomed, supported, and fully included.
Neurodiversity and Self-Advocacy: CDPF works to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups, including neurodivergent persons and people with intellectual disabilities. Self-advocates with autism, Down syndrome, and learning disabilities have highlighted the importance of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), dignity, inclusive education, and equitable employment opportunities as essential foundations for meaningful participation.
LGBT+ Persons with Disabilities: CDPF recognises the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination experienced by LGBT+ persons with disabilities across the Commonwealth. The Forum advocates for intersectional policies, stronger legal protections, inclusive services, and improved data to ensure that no one is excluded on the basis of disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Financing, Participation and “Nothing About Us Without Us”
Disability in National Budgets: Despite disabled people comprising an estimated 10–16% of populations, disability inclusion is often inadequately reflected in national budgets. Funding remains fragmented, donor-dependent, or absent in many contexts, while disability-inclusive laws and policies frequently lack the resources needed for effective implementation.
Strengthening the Role of DPOs and OPDs: CDPF emphasises the critical role of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) and Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in promoting accountability. Supporting DPOs and OPDs to analyse budgets, monitor implementation, and advocate for realistic, sustained, and mainstreamed disability financing is essential to ensuring that disability rights are translated into meaningful change.
Participation in Decision-Making: Across key areas of advocacy, including climate justice, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), legal reform, and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) processes, CDPF consistently promotes the principle that disabled people must be meaningfully involved in decisions that affect their lives. Disabled people must be present at the table as negotiators, advisors, experts, and delegates, ensuring that policies and actions are shaped by lived experience and the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
The Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum (CDPF) is an accredited Commonwealth organisation and actively participates in events and initiatives organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat. CDPF also plays an active role in the Independent Forum of Commonwealth Organisations (IFCO), strengthening collaboration and civil society engagement across the Commonwealth.
CDPF’s General Secretary serves as an elected member of the IFCO Steering Group, contributing to strategic dialogue and advancing disability inclusion within Commonwealth-wide civil society processes.
Read more about the origins of Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum on the History page