Human Rights and Disability Advocacy

Maya Sabatello, Marianne Schulze, Maya Sabatello, Marianne Schulze

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780812245479
  9780812245479
• eBook ISBN:
  9780812208740
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Labour & Employment Law
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The United Nations adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constituted a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to disability rights, marking the first time in law-making history that persons with disabilities participated as civil society representatives and contributed to the drafting of an international treaty. On the way, they brought a new kind of diplomacy forward: empowering nongovernmental stakeholders, including persons with disabilities, within human rights discourse. This landmark treaty provides an opportunity to consider what it means to involve members of a global civil society in UN-level negotiations. Human Rights and Disability Advocacy brings together perspectives from individual representatives of the Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), indigenous peoples' organizations, states, and national institutions that played leading roles in the Convention's drafting process. The contributors provide vivid and personal accounts of the paths to victory, including stumbling blocks—not all of which were overcome—and offer a unique look into the politics of civil society organizations both from within and in its interaction with governments. Each essay describes the nonnegotiable key issues for which they advocated; the extent of success in reaching their goals; and insights into the limitations they faced. Through the plurality of voices and insider perspectives, Human Rights and Disability Advocacy presents fresh perspectives on the shift toward a new diplomacy and explores the implication of this model for human rights advocacy more generally. Contributors: Andrew Byrnes, Heidi Forrest, Phillip French, Lex Grandia, Huhana Hickey, Markku Jokinen, Liisa Kauppinen, Mi Yeon Kim, Gerison Lansdown, Connie Laurin-Bowie, Tirza Leibowitz, Don MacKay, Anna MacQuarrie, Ronald C. McCallum AO, Tara J. Melish, Pamela Molina Toledo, Maya Sabatello, Marianne Schulze, Belinda Shaw.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. A Short History of the International Disability Rights Movement
• 2. Our Lives, Our Voices: People with Intellectual Disabilities and Their Families
• 3. Living in the Community, Access to Justice: Having the Right Makes All the Difference
• 4. Inclusion or Choice? Securing the Right to Inclusive Education for All
• 5. An Eye Toward Effective Enforcement: A Technical-Comparative Approach to the Drafting Negotiations
• 6. Children with Disabilities
• 7. Women with Disabilities: The Convention Through the Prism of Gender
• 8. Including Deaf Culture and Linguistic Rights
• 9. Imagine: To Be a Part of This
• 10. Indigenous People with Disabilities: The Missing Link
• 11. At the United Nations . . . “The South Also Exists”
• 12. Voices Down Under: An Australian Perspective
• 13. Monitoring the Convention’s Implementation
• 14. The Role of National Human Rights Institutions
• 15. The New Diplomacy
• Notes
• List of Contributors
• Index
• Acknowledgments