Rights of People with Disabilities

Although there is no universal definition of “disability,” it is estimated that approximately fifteen percent of the world’s population has disabilities—a staggering one billion people.

Unfortunately, these one billion people are overrepresented in the world’s developing countries and within poor populations.

In December 2006, the United Nations adopted the Convention and an Optional Protocol specifically to enforce the rights of people with disabilities. It entered into force in May 2008. The goals of the Convention are to ensure that disabled people are afforded the same rights and protections as everyone else; the goal is equality—to “promote respect for their inherent dignity,” and to ensure that people with disabilities have the right to recognition before the law. The Convention illustrates the standards of modern disability law that stem from the social model of disability. In particular, the Convention exemplifies the United Nations’ gradual recognition of the social model, rather than the old medical model paradigm, of disability.

represented substantial progress in the field of international disability rights. The 1975 Declaration explicitly stated that people with disabilities “have the same fundamental rights as their fellow-citizens,”and advocated for the change to the social, rather than the medical, model of disability.Later, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) included a provision stating that it applies equally to children with or without disabilities regarding their right to an education. By the time of the adoption of the 1993 Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, the modern nomenclature exemplifying the commitment to the social model was firmly entrenched in international law.

The United Nations did not originally explicitly safeguard the rights of people with disabilities. Documents drafted by the United Nations used the term “everyone” in the context of equal rights; this can logically include individuals with disabilities.²⁰ The 1975 Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons

POSITIVE OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE CONVENTION

The UN Human Rights Committee recognizes that “the principle of equality may require affirmative action in order to . . . eliminate conditions which cause . . . discrimination.”The Convention requires equal, inclusive, access to the general education system for all students, regardless of disabilities. The states that have signed the Convention are committing to “respect the rights of persons with disabilities, [p]rotect the rights of persons with disabilities, [and f]ulfill the rights of persons with disabilities.”The Convention addresses issues of accessibility, health, rehabilitation, non-discrimination, and, most importantly for this Note, education.

The Convention details the right to inclusive education and requires individualized support for all students with disabilities to facilitate their education. Article 24 of the Convention requires states to “recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education,” but merely recognizing the right does not ensure that students receive it. Inclusive education requires an increase in access to general education systems and access to meaningful learning in those schools, which may include reasonable accommodations such as changes to the building, the curriculum, and culture. There are still many obstacles to inclusive education, including local school officials who deny access to students with disabilities, teachers with inadequate training, and buildings with inadequate accommodations.

More information/definitions:

• The United Nations and Indigenous Persons with Disabilities, UN ENABLE http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1605. UN Enable states that people with disabilities are “those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various attitudinal and environmental barriers, hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. . . . [This definition shouldn’t] undermine or stand in the way of wider definition of disabilities.” Frequently Asked Questions, UN ENABLE (2007), http:// http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/faqs.htm.
• U.S. AGENCY FOR INT’L DEV., THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE USAID DISABILITY POLICY 1 (2000) (stating that an estimated 80% of the world’s disabled population live in developing countries).

Contact us now if you have any questions about what you can, and should, do, or if you are interested in getting involved.