CRPD/C/GC/5 66. States parties must ensure access to justice and provide legal aid and appropriate legal advice, remedies and support, including through reasonable and procedural accommodation, for persons with disabilities who seek to enforce their right to living independently in the community. 67. States parties should provide adequate support services to family carers so they can in turn support their child or relative to live independently in the community. This support should include respite care services, childcare services and other supportive parenting services. Financial support is also crucial for family carers, who often live in situations of extreme poverty without the possibility of accessing the labour market. States parties should also provide social support to families and foster the development of counselling services, circles of support and other adequate support options. 68. States parties must regularly conduct surveys and other forms of analysis providing data on the physical, communication, environmental, infrastructural and attitudinal barriers experienced by persons with disabilities and the requirements for implementing living independently in the community. IV. Relationship with other provisions of the Convention 69. The right to live independently and be included in the community is interrelated with the enjoyment of other human rights provided for in the Convention. At the same time, it is more than the sum of those rights as it affirms that all rights should be exercised and enjoyed in the community where a person chooses to live and in which alone the free and full development of one’s personality can be fulfilled. 70. Consultations with and the active involvement of persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations (art. 4 (3)), is critical for the adoption of all plans and strategies as well as for follow-up and monitoring when implementing the right to independent living in the community. Decision makers at all levels must actively involve and consult the full range of persons with disabilities including organizations of women with disabilities, older persons with disabilities, children with disabilities, persons with psychosocial disabilities and persons with intellectual disabilities. 71. Non-discrimination (art. 5), in terms of living independently and being included in the community, is important in regard to accessing and receiving support services. States parties should define eligibility criteria and procedures for accessing support services in a non-discriminatory way, objectively and focused on the requirements of the person rather than on the impairment, following a human rights-compliant approach. The establishment of specific services for persons with disabilities in the particular circumstances of the persons with disabilities and in accordance with their requirements, such as services for children, students, employees and older persons with disabilities, should not be considered as a discriminatory violation of the Convention, but rather as a just and legally available affirmative action. Persons with disabilities who face discrimination in relation to article 19 must have effective and affordable legal remedies at their disposal. 72. Often, women and girls with disabilities (art. 6) are more excluded and isolated, and face more restrictions regarding their place of residence as well as their living arrangements owing to paternalistic stereotyping and patriarchal social patterns that discriminate against women in society. Women and girls with disabilities also experience gender-based, multiple and intersectional discrimination, greater risk of institutionalization and violence, including sexual violence, abuse and harassment. 8 States parties must provide affordable, or free, legal remedy and support services for victims of violence and abuse. Women with disabilities who face domestic violence are frequently more economically, physically or emotionally dependent on their abusers, who often act as caregivers, a situation that prevents women with disabilities from leaving abusive relationships and leads to further social isolation. Therefore, when implementing the right to live independently and be 8 See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 3 (2016) on women and girls with disabilities. 13