JEAN-JACQUES GAUTIER NPM SYMPOSIUM 2016 persons with disabilities are subjects of rights.4 These two terms are often used interchangeably, but the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Committee) favours the term “psychosocial” to reflect the concept that disability is a consequence of the interaction between a person’s “impairment” and the social environment she/he lives in. Finally, to conclude this introduction, we would like to emphasise that an intersectional approach should be applied when dealing with situations of vulnerability of persons with disabilities deprived of liberty. Indeed, certain groups or persons with disabilities (for example, women, LGBTI persons, children, the elderly, ethnic minorities or indigenous peoples), once institutionalised, are exposed to an increased risk of discrimination and ill-treatment as a result of, for example, their gender, sexual orientation, age or membership of a minority or indigenous people. Monitoring bodies are therefore asked to pay particular attention to these cases of multiple vulnerability in the context of deprivation of liberty. 4 14 Article 1 of the CRPD defines persons with disabilities as “those who have longterm physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”. This definition distinguishes between two concepts: “impairment” (which is a personal characteristic) and “disability” (understood to be the effect of interaction between personal impairment and the social and material environment).