This treatise is a detailed article-by-article examination of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Each article of the CRPD contains a methodical analysis of the preparatory works, followed by an exhaustive examination of the contents of each article based on case law and concluding observations from the CRPD Committee, judgments from national and international courts and tribunals, pertinent UN and other reports, the key literature on the article under review. The volume features commentary from a broad range of scholars across a variety of disciplines in order to provide a comprehensive study of the legal, psychological, education, sociological, and other aspects of the CPRD. This encyclopaedic commentary on the CRPD effectively covers all the issues arising from international disability law and practice, and will be an ideal resource for all working in the field.
A timely examination of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, this first thorough comparative analysis contrasts the approaches of thirteen jurisdictions to reveal a legal area of growing importance.
This Commentary provides the first comprehensive legal article-by-article analysis of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Convention is the key international human rights instrument exclusively devoted to persons with disabilities and the centerpiece of international efforts to address inequalities and barriers they encounter to the full enjoyment of human rights. The book discusses the Convention’s position within existing international human rights law and within the framework of the United Nations measures to protect the rights of people with disabilities. Starting with the background of all the Convention’s articles, including the travaux préparatoires, this Commentary examines each provision’s substance and interpretation, and explores the significance of each right, its legal scope and relationship with other international legal norms and principles. A unique contribution also analyzes the Optional Protocol to the Convention. In addition to enriching academic studies of international human rights law, the book provides insights into the practical operation of the Convention’s provisions by assessing the practice of the CRPD Committee, the activities of relevant international and regional human rights bodies in enforcing the rights of persons with disabilities and the contracting parties’ implementation practices. Relevant European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and, if appropriate, other regional jurisdictions’ case law, as well as the jurisprudence of domestic courts, are taken into consideration. Contributions from leading scholars and international experts make this book an indispensable resource for lawyers, academics, students, journalists, international organizations, NGOs and other stakeholders wanting to better understand the rights of people with disabilities. Furthermore, it makes a valuable contribution to appraising the impact of the Convention in the legal orders of contracting parties and to charting the way forward in the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.
This open access book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children. This approach transforms the narrative of legal international standards concerning a given right into a set of characteristics that ensure no aspect of said right is overlooked. The book develops a clear and comprehensive understanding of the UNCRC that can be used as an introduction to the rights and principles it contains, and to identify directions for future policy and strategy development in compliance with the UNCRC. As such, it offers an invaluable reference guide for researchers and students in the field of childhood and children’s rights studies, as well as a wide range of professionals and organisations concerned with the subject.
The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations in the 21st century. It seeks to secure the equal and effective enjoyment of human rights for the estimated 650 million persons with disabilities in the world. It does so by tailoring gerneral human rights norms to their circumstances. It reflects and advances the shift away from welfare to rights in the context of disability. The Convention itself represents a mix between non-discrimination and other substantive human rights and gives practical effect to the idea that all human rights are indivisible and interdependent. This collection of essays examines these developments from the global, European and Scandinavian perspectives and the challenge of transposing its provisions into national law. It marks the coming of age of disabilty as a core human rights concern.
This book provides a concise guide to international disability law. It analyses the case law of the CRPD Committee and other international human rights treaty bodies, and provides commentaries on more than 50 leading cases. The author elaborates on the obligations of States Parties under the CRPD and other international treaties, while also spelling out the rights of persons with disabilities, and the different mechanisms that exist at both domestic and international levels for ensuring that those rights are respected, protected and promoted. The author also delineates the traditional differentiation between civil and political rights on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. He demonstrates, through analysis of the evolving case law, how the gap between these two sets of rights is gradually closing. The result is a powerful tool for political decisionmakers, academics, legal practitioners, law students, persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, human rights activists and general readers.
Parliaments and parliamentarians have a key role to play in promoting and protecting human rights. This Handbook aims to assist parliamentarians and others in efforts to realize the Convention so that persons with disabilities can achieve the transition from exclusion to equality. It seeks to raise awareness of the Convention and its provisions, promote an appreciation of disability concerns, and assist parliaments in understanding the mechanisms and frameworks needed to translate the Convention into practice. By providing examples and insights, it is hoped that the Handbook will serve as a useful tool for parliamentarians to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities all over the world.
In 2014 the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty, one specifically for children, reached the milestone of its twenty-fifth anniversary. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in the time since then it has entered a new century, reshaping laws, policies, institutions and practices across the globe, along with fundamental conceptions of who children are, their rights and entitlements, and society’s duties and obligations to them. Yet despite its rapid entry into force worldwide, there are concerns that the Convention remains a high-level paper treaty without the traction on the ground needed to address ever-continuing violations of children’s rights. This book, based on papers from the conference ‘25 Years CRC’ held by the Department of Child Law at Leiden University, draws together a rich collection of research and insight by academics, practitioners, NGOs and other specialists to reflect on the lessons of the past 25 years, take stock of how international rights find their way into children’s lives at the local level, and explore the frontiers of children’s rights for the 25 years ahead.
The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CPRD) by the United Nations in 2006 is the first comprehensive and binding treaty on the rights of people with disabilities. It establishes the right of people with disabilities to equality, dignity, autonomy, full participation, as well as the right to live in the community, and the right to supported decision-making and inclusive education. Prior to the CRPD, international law had provided only limited protections to people with disabilities. This book analyses the development of disability rights as an international human rights movement. Focusing on the United States and countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East the book examines the status of people with disabilities under international law prior to the adoption of the CPRD, and follows the development of human rights protections through the convention’s drafting process. Arlene Kanter argues that by including both new applications and entirely new approaches to human rights treaty enforcement, the CRPD is significant not only to people with disabilities but also to the general development of international human rights, by offering new human rights protections for all people. Taking a comparative perspective, the book explores how the success of the CRPD in achieving protections depends on the extent to which individual countries enforce domestic laws and policies, and the changing public attitudes towards people with disabilities. This book will be of excellent use and interest to researchers and students of human rights law, discrimination, and disability studies.
