The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), through Article 30.5, provides the world with a framework for addressing a rights-based approach to the inclusion and integration of people with disabilities in sport, recreation and leisure activities. Article 30.5 utilizes a universal design approach and covers the spectrum of opportunities for people with disabilities: inclusion within mainstream settings as well as inclusion within disability-specific opportunities. The CRPD’s language also enables opportunities for people with and without disabilities to participate and compete together through unified sports and reverse integration settings. Additionally Article 30.5 covers inclusion in venues, activities in school settings, and inclusion and access to services provided to all.
Article 30.5 is a significant contribution to the CRPD as it reinforces the vital contribution of sport, recreation and leisure to human rights and the human condition. The CRPD reinforces a paradigm shift from a medical model to a social model of disability, including the domain of sport and recreation. Article 30.5 indicates the need for people with disabilities to become full members of the sporting world with rights and dignity. People with disabilities are stakeholders at all levels of sport, recreation, physical activity, physical education and leisure and as such must be in the room as meaningfully involved and engaged participants, competitors, administrators and officials.
The CRPD has served as a catalyst for international organizations, some of which we do not typically associate with sport, to begin to adopt language inclusive of people with disabilities. Organizations such as the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), the International Disability Alliance (IDA), and UNESCO now recognize disability in their public discourses and updated policies.
The UNOSDP includes people with disabilities as a priority area and focus of their office. UNOSDP has integrated a focus on ‘Sport and Persons with Disabilities’ through their Thematic Working Group of the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group (SDP IWG) co-chaired by the Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China. The Working Group focuses on the following three Strategic Priority Areas: (a) Independence and Sport Participation, (b) Using Sport to Empower Persons with Disabilities, and (c) Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities within Sport.
In 2015, IDA issued a statement titled, ‘Calling for the Global Sport Community to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Accordance with the CRPD’. IDA articulates,
To ensure full and effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), IDA calls upon the entire global sport community, including Governmental and Non-Governmental actors, to acknowledge and promote the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in all forms of sport and recreation. This includes, but is not limited to, organized and non-formal sport, physical education, physical activity and fitness, recreation and play. The promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in sport and recreation must be consistent with the principles of the CRPD and must likewise reflect the social model understanding of disability.
The adoption of the revised Charter should mark a shift away from words towards action, from policy intent to implementation. It sets the tone for a new international sport policy debate, which should now focus on the exchange of good practice, education and training programmes, capacity development, and advocacy. This is also a strong recognition of physical education as a driver for promoting gender equality, social inclusion, non-discrimination and sustained dialogue in our societies,
At the time of the adoption of the revised UNESCO charter, the authors provided this statement:
The updated Charter represents a milestone in the global sporting environment, calling for people with disabilities to be at the table and visible, with a voice, at the center and within physical education, physical activity and sport. People with disabilities can no longer be on the sidelines, no longer objects of charity and pity. The new Charter reflects the paradigm shift as indicated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, moving toward empowerment, dignity, universal design and full inclusion.
The CRPD also relates to the Olympic Movement. The Olympic Movement’s reach includes athletes with disabilities on several levels – competitors with disabilities in the Olympic Games, as well as athletes of the Paralympic Games, Special Olympics and Deaflympics. The CRPD reaffirms that athletes with disabilities in the Olympic Movement receive equal treatment and equal protection in the Olympic Games as well as the Paralympic Games, Special Olympics and Deaflympics. The CRPD does not call for the creation of one Games for all, but it does call for all athletes with disabilities within the Olympic Movement to be respected and valued as athletes first – all athletes are equally Olympians. While the non-discrimination language in Principle 6 of the IOC’s Olympic Charter does not currently address disability, it is being recommended to the IOC to add the word ‘disability’ into Principle 6 to align with the CRPD. As Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally states,
If the IOC believes the practice of sport is a human right, then they should amend Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter to include people with disabilities. Without this language, people with disabilities at the Olympic, Paralympic, Special Olympic and Deaflympic Games will not be valued, protected and respected as they deserve.
A book such as this one, with contributions from a cadre of respected authors, guides the reader via a well-laid out map to discover the scope and influence of the CRPD as it relates to sport and physical activity. As the first United Nations civil rights convention of the twenty-first century, the global footprint of the CRPD is becoming more evident. Yes, work remains to be done to level the playing field, but at least now the international rulebook has expanded and its pages, once silent on disability, have become more inclusive. Voices of disability are being heard and valued, and the CRPD, specifically Article 30.5, has played a critical role in this new-found presence and visibility of people with disabilities in sport. Article 30.5 is a powerful tool for promoting and ensuring equality and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects and levels of sport, recreation, physical activity, physical education and leisure. We hope each chapter in this book will help readers to realize and understand how the power of sport empowers people with disabilities.