Navigating the 'Flashing Amber Lights' of the Right to Legal Capacity in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Responding to Major Concerns

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gooding
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

Art.20 Personal Mobility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kovudhikulrungsri Lalin ◽  
Hendriks Aart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Personal Mobility ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
European Court ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines Article 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Personal mobility is a prerequisite for inclusion in a society. According to the European Court of Human Rights, to be mobile and to have access to transport, housing, cultural activities, and leisure is a precondition for the ‘right to establish and develop relations with other human beings’, ‘in professional or business contexts as in others’. The CRPD does not establish new rights for persons with disabilities. It is merely thought to identify specific actions that states and others must take to ensure the effectiveness and inclusiveness of all human rights and to protect against discrimination on the basis of disability. However, the fact that there is no equivalent of the right to personal mobility in any other human rights treaty makes it particularly interesting to examine the genesis and meaning of this provision.

Art.15 Protection against Torture and Cruel or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fennell Phil
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Degrading Treatment ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines Article 15 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP), irrespective of the circumstances and the victim’s behaviour. Article 15 rights overlap with rights under other CRPD articles, including the right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others under Article 12; the right to liberty and security under Article 14; the right to protection against violence, exploitation and abuse under Article 16; the right to physical and mental integrity under Article 17 and; the right to health care on an equal basis with others and based on informed consent under Article 25.

Art.10 Right to Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nizar Smitha
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines Article 10 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which affirms every human being’s right to life. It first explores the efforts made by the drafters of the CRPD to frame the right to life of all human beings. It further examines the wider meaning of the right to life and its application, and traces the interpretation given by the CRPD Committee in its concluding observations. In order to understand the micro-level application of the right, the chapter examines the interpretation and its application by domestic and regional courts. Finally, it explores the individual complaints made under the optional protocol and the consequent interpretation provided. This is done to define the jurisprudence surrounding the right to life and the required measures to strengthen and facilitate its wider application as envisaged under the Convention.

Legislating personhood: realising the right to support in exercising legal capacity

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eilionoir Flynn ◽  
Anna Arstein-Kerslake
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Mental Disabilities ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Right

AbstractThis paper examines the regulation of ‘personhood’ through the granting or denying of legal capacity. It explores the development of the concept of personhood through the lens of moral and political philosophy. It highlights the problem of upholding cognition as a prerequisite for personhood or the granting of legal capacity because it results in the exclusion of people with cognitive disabilities (intellectual, psycho-social, mental disabilities, and others). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) challenges this notion by guaranteeing respect for the right to legal capacity for people with disabilities on an equal basis with others and in all areas of life (Article 12). The paper uses the CRPD to argue for a conception of personhood that is divorced from cognition and a corresponding recognition of legal capacity as a universal attribute that all persons possess. Finally, a support model for the exercise of legal capacity is proposed as a possible alternative to the existing models of substituted decision-making that deny legal capacity and impose outside decision-makers.

Art.5 Equality and Non-Discrimination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corsi Jessica Lynn
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Equality Rights ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Article 5

This chapter examines Article 5 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which sets out the concepts of equality and non-discrimination. It explores the myriad advances embodied in Article 5 and analyses the legal import of each paragraph. It also considers the potential challenges to implementing Article 5, including clashes between the CRPD Committee’s interpretation and that of states parties, and conflicts between equality rights, such as the right to abortion and arguments that non-discrimination under the CRPD requires bans on aborting disabled foetuses. What emerges is a picture of equality and non-discrimination born of ‘a three-dimensional view of the reality of life as a person with a disability’.

scholarly journals The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the European Convention on Human Rights: a tale of two halves or a potentially unified vision of human rights?

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Broderick
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

The traditional dichotomy of rights between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other hand, has been increasingly eroded in scholarly and judicial discourse. The interdependence of the two sets of rights is a fundamental tenet of international human rights law. Nowhere is this interdependence more evident than in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or UN Convention). This article examines the indivisibility and interdependence of rights in the CRPD and, specifically, the positive obligations imposed on States Parties to the UN Convention, in particular the reasonable accommodation duty. The aim of the paper is to analyse, from a disability perspective, the approach adopted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or ‘Strasbourg Court’) in developing the social dimension of certain civil and political rights in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), namely Articles 2 and 3 (on the right to life and the prohibition on torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, respectively), Article 8 (on the right to private and family life) and Article 14 ECHR (on non-discrimination). Ultimately, this paper examines the influence of the CRPD on the interpretation by the Strasbourg Court of the rights of persons with disabilities under the ECHR. It argues that, while the Court is building some bridges to the CRPD, the incremental and often fragmented approach adopted by the Court could be moulded into a more principled approach, guided by the CRPD.

Connecting the Right of Collective Legal Capacity by Indigenous Peoples with the Right of Individual Legal Capacity by Persons with Disabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-183
Author(s):  
Matthew S Smith ◽  
Michael Ashley Stein
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
American System ◽  
European Court ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Right ◽  
Three Factor

Abstract This Article explores the juridical implications of indigenous peoples’ right to legal capacity in the Inter-American system for cases involving the same right of persons with disabilities within that system and beyond. It explicates the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ (IACtHR) three-factor test in Saramaka People v Suriname and analogizes its reasoning with rationales underpinning the right to legal capacity under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (crpd). It then demonstrates how the IACtHR can apply a Saramaka-style test to future cases brought by persons with disabilities challenging legal capacity restrictions. The Article further argues that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should also apply this rule to align its legal capacity jurisprudence with the crpd’s mandates. Finally, it suggests that the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (crpd Committee) ought to consider this rule when resolving individual communications and thereby guide courts.

scholarly journals Unveiling the Challenges in the Implementation of Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities on the Right to Access to Justice: A Case Study of Lesotho

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Henok Ashagrey Kremte
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees access to justice in the context of disability as a human right and puts concrete and binding duties on state parties. It lays down a duty to safeguard effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. Nevertheless, persons with disabilities are extremely susceptible to marginalization and discrimination in Africa and are often denied access to justice. The situation in the Kingdom of Lesotho is not an exception to this reality. The research thus aims at unveiling challenges in the implementation of Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the right to access justice in the Kingdom of Lesotho and proposes possible recommendations. To this effect, the country’s policies and legislative framework were reviewed to determine the extent to which the right to access justice of persons with disabilities is met and aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Factors that hinder persons with disabilities from accessing justice mechanisms in the country were also scrutinized, and the research concluded that persons with disabilities face difficulties in accessing justice because of social, legal and structural obstacles, and recommended legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures. In reaching this conclusion, the research adopted four methodologies of data collection: interview, on-site visit, focus group discussions and desk review research. The research used a human-rights based approach to disability issues so as to frame the enquiry, design the tools for analysis, and made practical findings and recommendations.

New Legal Capacity Laws and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: An Overview of Five Countries in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Fallon-Kund ◽  
Jerome E Bickenbach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Main Components

AbstractSeveral state parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) undertook recent revisions of their national legal capacity laws. These revisions aim to promote the autonomy of persons with disabilities as set forward by the CRPD. At the same time, the CRPD Committee calls for the abolishment of all forms of substitute decision-making through its first General Comment on Article 12 of the Convention. We thus describe the main components of new legal capacity laws of Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Switzerland and assess those in light of the General Comment. We argue that none of these countries completely abolished substitute decision-making regimes and align with the views that a more realistic interpretation should be given to the CRPD. Such interpretation would provide better guidance for countries in the implementation of Article 12.

scholarly journals Access to Inclusive Education for Students with Autism: An Analysis of Canada’s Compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 328-346
Author(s):  
Phil Lord
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Canadian Education ◽  
Students With Autism ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

This article argues that Canada fails to meet its obligation under article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to provide students with autism with access to inclusive education. Moving beyond Canadian legislation, under which every province and territory recognises the right of all students to an inclusive education, it analyses Canada’s education system and the implementation of the goal of inclusive education. It points out the effect of five interrelated factors on the inclusiveness of the Canadian education system and its accessibility for students with autism: reductions in funding for education; the inadequacy of individual support measures and parent participation; the lack of education and training for teachers; the use of language indicative of the medical model of disability by governments; and "voluntary segregation" – the voluntary removal of children from the public education system by their parents. It concludes that Canada likely does not meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document