The disabilities convention: Human rights of persons with disabilities or disability rights?

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 494-516

  Mégret, Frédéric ^a  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DISABILITY; HUMAN RIGHTS; INTERNATIONAL LAW; LEGISLATIVE IMPLEMENTATION; UNITED NATIONS;

EID: 44449163057     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.0.0000     Document Type: Article

References (116)

1. International Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, U.N. GAOR, 61st Sess., Item 67(b), U.N. Doc. A/61/ 611 (Dec. 6, 2006) [hereinafter Disabilities Convention].
2. This article is part of a larger series which aims to analyze the Disability Convention from a variety of rights perspectives.
3. For a classic defense of the need for a new treaty on such a basis, see Lenore Manderson, Disability Global Legislation and Human Rights, 47 DEV. 29, 30 (2004) ("A convention provides the highest level of a statement of principles upon which basis member governments might maximize and protect individual capabilities. It represents a consensus about what is right and proper in any society; it provides legitimacy to efforts to fight for and protect individuals' rights.").
4. Frédéric Mégret, The Disabilities Convention: Towards a Holistic Concept of Human Rights?, 12 INT'L J. HUM. RTS. 259 (2008).
5. See generally, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted 21 Dec. 1965, art. 5, U.N. Doc. A/6014(1966), 660 U.N.T.S. 195, (entered into force 4 Jan. 1969) [hereinafter CERD].
6. Id.
7. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 1 (emphasis added).
8. Id. art. 4.1.
9. Id. art. 10.
10. Id. art. 12.1.
11. Id. art. 14.1(a).
12. Id. art. 17.
13. Id. art. 23.1(a).
14. Id. art. 24.1.
15. Id. art. 25.
16. Id. art. 27.
17. Id. art. 28.
18. Id. art. 28.2.
19. Id. art. 30.
20. Id. art. 15.1.
21. Id. art. 18.
22. Id. art. 21.
23. Id. art. 22.
24. Id. art. 29.
25. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 10 Dec. 1948, G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess. (Resolutions, Pt. 1), U.N. Doc. A/ 180 (1948), reprinted in 43 AM. J. INT'L L. 127 (SUPP. 1949) [hereinafter UDHR].
26. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, G.A Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, (entered into force 23 Mar. 1976) [hereinafter ICCPR].
27. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, G.A Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, (entered into force 3 Jan. 1976) [hereinafter ICESCR].
28. JOANNA RYAN, THE POLITICS OF MENTAL HANDICAP (1987).
29. Sally M. Rogow, Persecution and Genocide of Children and Young People with Disabilities in Nazi Germany, 26 DEV. DISABILITIES BULLETIN (1998)
30. Stephen C. Baldwin, Genocide & Deafness, 4 THE VOICE 7, 7-11 (May-June 1988)
31. Sally M. Rogow, Child Victims in Nazi Germany, 8 J. HOLOCAUST EDU. 71 (1999).
32. A. Brauner, A Final Solution for People with a Mental Disability - History of the Ideas of Eugenism and Euthanasia and of their Practice in the National-Socialist Germany, 1 EUR. J. ON MENTAL DISABILITY 3-11 (1994)
33. EDWIN BLACK, WAR AGAINST THE WEAK: EUGENICS AND AMERICA'S CAMPAIGN TO CREATE A MASTER RACE (2003).
34. For an interesting case study of persons with mental disabilities, see AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, BULGARIA: FAR FROM THE EYES OF SOCIETY: SYSTEMATIC DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PEOPLE WITH MENTAL DISABILITIES (2002), available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR15/ 005/2002.
35. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 3(a).
36. Arvonne S. Fraser, Becoming Human: The Origins and Development of Women's Human Rights, 21 HUM. RTS. Q. 853 (1999).
37. Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Commission on Human Rights 58th Sess., U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2002/18/Add.1 (2002) (emphasis added).
38. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, pmbl. (c).
39. Id. pmbl (f).
40. Id. art. 3.
41. Id.
42. Theresia Degener relies on this idea. I am not sure it is an entirely adequate description: women are a larger group, although the question of whether they are a minority is more complex. The total number of discriminated racial, cultural or national minorities is probably higher, although no single "group" probably reaches 500 million disabled people. The idea should probably be taken not too strictly and as emphasizing simply that there is a very substantial number of people who are disabled in the world today. See Theresia Degener, Disabled Persons and Human Rights: The Legal Framework, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISABLED PERSONS: ESSAYS AND RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS 9 (Theresia Degener & Yolan Koster-Dreese, eds. 1995).
43. CERD, supra note 5, art. 1
44. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted 18 Dec. 1979, G.A. Res. 34/180, 34th Sess., Supp. No. 46, art. 1, U.N Doc. A/34/46 (1979), (entered into force 3 Sept. 1981) [hereinafter CEDAW].
45. ICCPR, supra note 26, arts. 2, 26.
46. General Comment 18: Non-Discrimination, Human Rights Committee, 37TH Sess., (1989), reprinted in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 (1994), at 26 (lamenting that a number of constitutions do not include all of the grounds of discrimination contained in the ICCPR).
47. Degener, supra note 39, at 11-12.
48. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, art. 21, 2000 O.J. (C 364) 1.
49. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 6
50. ICCPR supra note 26, art. 16.
51. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 7.
52. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 12.3.
53. Id. art. 12.4
54. Id. art. 14.1(b).
55. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 13
56. ICCPR, supra note 26, art. 12.
57. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 18.1.
58. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 19
59. ICCPR, supra note 26, art. 19.
60. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 21.
61. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 12
62. ICCPR, supra note 26, art. 17.
63. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 22.1.
64. Id. art. 22.2.
65. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 16
66. ICCPR, supra note 26, art. 23.
67. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 23.1(c).
68. ICESCR, supra note 27, art. 13.
69. Id. art. 12.
70. Id. art. 6.
71. Id. art. 11.
72. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, at arts. 24, 25, 27, 28.
73. ICESCR, supra note 27, arts. 6(2), 10, 11(2), 12(2), 15(2).
74. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, arts. 9.1(e), 13.1, 18.1(b), 19, 20(a), 20(b), 21(b), 24.2(d), 24.3, 24.3(a), 24.3(b), 29(a)(ii).
75. Id. arts. 4.1(b), 6.2, 9.1, 9.2.
76. Id. arts. 4.1(a), 4.1(b), 4.3, 15.2, 16.1, 16.5, 27.1, 30.3.
77. Id. art. 4.1(c).
78. Id. arts. 8.1(a), 8.1(c).
79. Id. arts. 9.1(a), 9.2(d).
80. Id. arts. 4.1(h), 8.2(d), 9.2, 13.2, 20(c), 24.4, 25(d), 26(2), 32.1(b).
81. Id. art. 24.4.
82. Id. pmbl. (x), arts. 4.1(f), 4.1(h)-(i), 7.3, 9.1, 9.2(e)-(f), 16.2, 16.4, 19(b), 20(b), 21(c), 23.2, 23.3, 25, 26, 27.1(e), 28.2(a), 28.2(c), 29(a)(iii), 30.1(c), 32.1(d).
83. Id. art. 4(3).
84. Violence is mentioned in the ICCPR but only in article 20(2) on the prohibition of advocacy of "national, racial or religious hatred." Violence is not highlighted more generally as a key phenomenon with which human rights attempt to deal.
85. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 3.
86. See also ICCPR, supra note 26, art. 9 (not mentioning the right to life as such).
87. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 3.
88. Id. art. 29.
89. UDHR, supra note 25, art. 27
90. ICESCR, supra note 27, art. 15.
91. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 29(b).
92. Id. pmbl. (e).
93. Id. pmbl. (k).
94. Id. pmbl. (m), (y).
95. Id. art. 30
96. Id. art. 19.
97. Id. art. 24.3.
98. Id. art. 26.1.
99. Id. art. 26.1(b).
100. Id. art. 19.
101. On the centrality of autonomy to the idea of human rights, and its rediscovery in the context of persons with disabilities, see Gerard Quinn, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Disability: A conceptual framework, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISABLED PERSONS-ESSAYS AND RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS 69-70 (Theresia Degener & Yolan Koster-Dreese eds., 1995).
102. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, pmbl. (n).
103. Id. art. 3(a).
104. Id. art. 20.
105. Id. art. 9.
106. This in itself goes further than some of the claims advanced in the 1970s, for example, by the 'independent living' movement, which promoted 'independent living' from a general political perspective rather than strictly a rights framework.
107. Disabilities Convention, supra note 1, art. 26.1.
108. Id. art. 23.2.
109. Id. art. 13.1.
110. Ad Hoc Committee Reaches Agreement on Treaty Protecting, Promoting Rights, Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, Ad Hoc Committee on Convention on Persons with Disabilities, Department of Public Information, 21st mtg., U.N. GA/SOC/4720, 5 Dec. 2006 (emphasis added).
111. See Anthony P. Butcher, The Relative Irrelevance of Human Rights for the Care and Protection of the Mentally Ill, 35(1) AUS. J. POL. SCI. 85-97 (2000)
112. Nathaniel Laor, The Paradox of Autonomy: The Case of the Mentally Ill, 18 J. VALUE INQUIRY 159 (1984).
113. Quinn, supra note 90
114. Luis Kutner, Commentary: Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant on Human Rights, 55 MARQ. L. REV. 264 (1972).
115. MAJA ERIKSSON KIRILOVA, REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM: IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW (2000)
116. CORRINNE A. PACKER, THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE: A STUDY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (1996).