Positive Action Measures and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Case Note: Communication No. 9/2012 A.F. v. Italy, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 19 May 2015

Italian law (Law No. 68/1999 of 12 March 1999) requires that employers with a workforce of more than fifty employees ensure that at least 7 percent of their workforce are people who are registered as disabled. In addition, in order to fulfil this quota, the law requires that public employers reserve up to half of positions to be filled through competitive exams for registered persons with disabilities. The complainant, A.F., was a registered person with a disability who sat a competitive exam at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Only one position was to be filled. A.F. obtained the third highest mark in the exam and was not appointed. He had previously been unsuccessful in such exams. He argued that Law No. 68/1999 had been breached, the 50 percent quota for public exams had not been respected, and that he should be awarded the relevant position. He was unsuccessful before domestic courts and submitted a communication to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) arguing that Italy had breached Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on employment. The CRPD Committee found the communication to be admissible because the final court decision, which had examined the claim of discrimination on its merits, was rendered after Italy had ratified the Optional Protocol and A.F. had exhausted all national remedies. It also found that A.F. had not submitted evidence of a breach of his individual rights under the CRPD and that Article 27 had not been violated.