Disability rights and change in a global perspective

Abstract

The 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) brought in a new era of disability rights, and as a human rights instrument Article 30 of the Convention addresses rights in sport and physical activity. Rights include those in disability-specific sport and mainstream sport, games, recreation, leisure, tourist sites and activities. The Convention also addresses other aspects of sport including coaching, training, management, barrier-free facilities and physical education. This article argues that the shift from a disability and charity-based approach to a rights-based approach fundamentally changes the playing field, the players, the spectators and the society. It also argues that the UN Convention provides a framework by which policies and programmes can be measured, and the public recognition of different bodies and abilities to support inclusive societies in the global context.

Notes

¹ UN Enable, Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (A/RES/56/583/Add.2), http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id = 70. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. There were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and one ratification of the Convention. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the twenty-first century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations. The Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.

² Barnes, Mercer, and Shakespeare, Exploring Disability; Oliver, The Politics of Disablement.

³ Rioux and Zubrow, ‘Social Disability and the Public Good’, 148.

⁴ Rioux, ‘Disability: The Place of Judgement in a World of Fact’, 102; Rioux, ‘On Second Thought: Constructing Knowledge, Law, Disability and Inequality’; Oliver, The Politics of Disablement; Michalko, The Difference Disability Makes.

⁵ WHO, International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps, http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/wha-en.pdf. WHO defines disability as a process that includes biomedical aspects, functional limitations and restrictions within environments, resulting in disadvantage.

⁶ Quinn et al. , Human Rights and Disability.

⁷ The CRPD Reporting Guidelines can be found online at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/CRPDIndex.aspx.

⁸ Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) has developed tools and methodology for holistic monitoring. See http://www.yorku.ca/drpi.

⁹ Mary Gaudron (Hon Justice), ‘In the Eye of the Law; the Jurisprudence of Equality’ (August 24, 1990) for the Mitchell Oration 1990, http://www.eoc.sa.gov.au/site/eo_resources/media_and_events/events/mitchell_orations.jsp.