Embracing the new disability rights paradigm: the importance of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

In 2008 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) commenced operation. The CRPD has created a dynamic new disability rights paradigm that empowers disability people’s organizations and creates a new paradigm for disability scholars. This paper analyses the impact of the CRPD and provides practical guidance as to how this convention can be used to drive change. Prior to this convention, persons with disabilities were protected by a range of general human rights conventions. Despite receiving nominal protection under general human rights conventions, persons with disabilities have had many of their human rights denied to them. The CRPD goes further than merely re-stating rights. It creates a new rights discourse, empowers civil society and renders human rights more obtainable for person with disabilities than any time in history.

Keywords:

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• disability human rights
• disability rights paradigm

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the participants for the helpful comments at the Griffith University Socio-Legal Research Centre March 2010 Seminar and participants at the Theorizing Normalcy and the Mundane Conference, Manchester, co-hosted by the University of Chester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Iceland, May 2010. The author would also like to thank the anonymous referees and editors for their assistance. All errors remain the author’s own.