Why the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities?
Disability issues represent one of the most urgent human rights concerns of our time. There are currently about 600 million people with disabilities on the globe, with a disproportionate number of these people living in poverty and in developing regions. Unlike many other minority conditions such as ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation, disability constitutes an experience that any individual can begin having at any point in life, though it is an experience that is statistically more likely as one gets older. In fact, people with disabilities will be one of the most rapidly growing minority groups on the planet in the coming decades as the global population ages. The growth of disability as a human rights issue, therefore, stands to benefit every citizen of every nation.
Outlines: This presentation covers eight sub-topics as shown here below
•
Invisibility and lack of legal protection
•
Earliest efforts to reduce the invisibility
•
Nature
and Purpose of the Convention
•
Paradigm
shift
•
Definition
of disability
•
General
principles and rights in the Convention
•
Monitoring
•
Conclusion
A:
Invisibility and lack of legal protection
•
International human rights did not explicitly
mention impairment or disability as one of the grounds of discrimination in
enjoying human rights.
•
Human rights shall be protected “without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status.”
•
“other status” = persons with disabilities?
•
Equality of human beings? INADEQUATE
•
persons with disabilities were for a long
time perceived as objects rather than subjects and therefore not rights-holders
•
persons with disabilities were looked on as
objects of pity who required “help” through charity
•
“welfare-based approach” to disabilities
•
This reinforced ‘specialized’ schemes within
social welfare programs in many – mostly industrialized – countries.
•
separate facilities such as special schools,
sheltered workshops, and other mechanisms of segregation
B: Earliest
efforts to reduce the invisibility
UN human rights documents:
1.
1971 Declaration on the Rights of Mentally
Retarded Persons,
2.
1975 Declaration on the Rights of Disabled
Persons,
3.
World Programme of Action on Disabled Persons
- 1982 (not a legally binding document)
4.
1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), which includes the article referring to the rights of children with
disabilities
5. Standard
Rules on the Equalization of
Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities - 1994 (not a legally
binding treaty)
Why a Convention?
•
A
response to an overlooked development challenge: 15% of the world’s population
are persons with disabilities (over 650 million persons). Approximately 80% of whom live in developing
countries
•
A
response to the fact that although pre-existing human rights
documents mentioned disabilities, persons with disabilities continued being
denied their human rights and were kept on the margins of society in all parts
of the world.
C: Nature and Purpose of the Convention
• Both a development and a human rights instrument
• A
policy instrument which is cross-disability and
cross-sectoral
• Legally
binding
• To promote, protect and ensure the full and
equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons
with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. The
Convention does not create new rights
D: A Paradigm Shift
• The
Convention marks a ‘paradigm shift’ in attitudes and approaches to persons with
disabilities.
• Under
the UNCRPD, persons with disabilities are no longer viewed as
"objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection;
rather as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those
rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed
consent as well as being active members of society.
• The
Convention gives universal recognition to the dignity of persons with
disabilities.
E: Definitions
of disability
What is disability?
1. Convention does not explicitly define
disability:
2. ‘Disability is an evolving concept, and that
disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments
and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders full and effective
participation in society on an equal basis with others’
3. ‘Persons with disabilities include those who
have long-term 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’.
4. Disability results from an interaction between
a non-inclusive society and individuals:
a. Person using a wheelchair might have difficulties
gaining employment not because of the wheelchair, but because there are
environmental barriers such as inaccessible buses or staircases which impede
access
b. Person with extreme near-sightedness who does not have
access to corrective lenses may not be able to perform daily tasks. This same person with prescription eyeglasses
would be able to perform all tasks without problems.
F: General Principles
There
are eight guiding principles that underlie the Convention:
1. Respect for inherent dignity, freedom to make one's own
choices, and independence of persons,
2. Non-discrimination,
3. Full and effective participation and inclusion in
society,
4. Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with
disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity,
5. Equality of opportunity,
6. Accessibility,
7. Equality between men and women, and
8. Respect for the evolving capacities of children with
disabilities and respect for the right of children with disabilities to
preserve their identities
G: Convention
Monitoring Bodies
§ Conference
of States Parties
§ meets
in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the
Convention (biennially or upon decision by the Conference)
§ Committee
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
§ a
body of independent experts serving in their personal capacity
§ tasked
with reviewing States’ implementation of the Convention.
§ initially
comprises 12 independent experts; rises to 18 members after an additional 60
ratifications or accessions to the Convention.
Optional Protocol
– Creates additional functions for the Committee on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities:
– Individual communications: Committee considers communications from individuals
or groups of individuals claiming to be victims of a violation of the
provisions of the Convention by a State Party of the party to the Protocol
– Inquiries: Committee members may conduct an inquiry on a State Party, following
information received indicating grave or systemic violations of the Convention
by State Party
• All
activities must include the participation of persons with disabilities: ‘Nothing
about us without us’
H: Conclusion
• The
challenge of implementing the Convention is now!
• Need
for training, capacity building, awareness raising, good practices collection
and validation, knowledge management
• Need
to mainstream disability in all development activities and all other human
activities
• Need
for implementation of Convention principles in the internal operations of
organizations and societies
• Need
to include persons with disabilities in all stages of implementation, and build
capacity of organizations of persons with disabilities to do so
References
UNITED NATIONS (2008). Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Development and
human rights for all. New York. USA.
