The first textbook on international and European disability law and policy, analysing the interaction between different legal systems and sources.

This Research Handbook comes at an opportune time, and provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging exploration of relevant developments concerning disability rights at EU level. It also looks beyond the EU, focusing on how disability has been relevant in EU external relations. In addition, the Research Handbook considers the interface between EU disability law and Council of Europe law.

This book examines the changing relationship between disability and the law, addressing the intersection of human rights principles, human rights law, domestic law and the experience of people with disabilities. Drawn from the global experience of scholars and activists in a number of jurisdictions and legal systems, the core human rights principles of dignity, equality and inclusion and participation are analyzed within a framework of critical disability legal scholarship.

"This book evolved from an event entitled 'Global PhD and Researchers Colloquium on Disability Law & Policy' organised by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy in NUI Galway in April 2010"--Introduction.

The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CPRD) by the United Nations in 2006 is the first comprehensive and binding treaty on the rights of people with disabilities. It establishes the right of people with disabilities to equality, dignity, autonomy, full participation, as well as the right to live in the community, and the right to supported decision-making and inclusive education. Prior to the CRPD, international law had provided only limited protections to people with disabilities. This book analyses the development of disability rights as an international human rights movement. Focusing on the United States and countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East the book examines the status of people with disabilities under international law prior to the adoption of the CPRD, and follows the development of human rights protections through the convention’s drafting process. Arlene Kanter argues that by including both new applications and entirely new approaches to human rights treaty enforcement, the CRPD is significant not only to people with disabilities but also to the general development of international human rights, by offering new human rights protections for all people. Taking a comparative perspective, the book explores how the success of the CRPD in achieving protections depends on the extent to which individual countries enforce domestic laws and policies, and the changing public attitudes towards people with disabilities. This book will be of excellent use and interest to researchers and students of human rights law, discrimination, and disability studies.

This book defined a contemporary disability human rights approach for the field of employment. Based on an analysis of the newly-adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and present-day interpretations of international and European human rights instruments, the book identifies four main requirements as characterizing the contemporary disability human rights approach on the labor market: 1) substantive equality founded on inclusive general structures, 2) a definition of disability which recognizes that disability results from the interaction between impairment and social structures and that all persons may, at one time or another, be disabled, 3) involvement of organizations of disabled persons in law and policy-making, and 4) a rights-based approach. It examines Danish and Swedish employment law and policy, as well as their compliance. In addition, EU law and policy is examined. The analysis and comparison of Danish and Swedish law and policy concentrates on four different areas of employment law and policy: disability equality, employers' obligations towards employees with disabilities and/or reduced working capacity, employment promotion for unemployed persons with disabilities, and income-replacement for persons with disabilities outside the labor market. The comparison shows that the main difference between Danish and Swedish disability employment law lies in the level of employers' obligations under employment protection law, as well as health and safety law. It is argued that this difference leads to more inclusive general structures on the labor market in Sweden and constitutes the main explanation for the extreme difference in employment rates for persons with disabilities and reduced working capacity in Denmark and Sweden. (Series: School of Human Rights Research - Vol. 43)

This treatise is a detailed article-by-article examination of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Each article of the CRPD contains a methodical analysis of the preparatory works, followed by an exhaustive examination of the contents of each article based on case law and concluding observations from the CRPD Committee, judgments from national and international courts and tribunals, pertinent UN and other reports, the key literature on the article under review. The volume features commentary from a broad range of scholars across a variety of disciplines in order to provide a comprehensive study of the legal, psychological, education, sociological, and other aspects of the CPRD. This encyclopaedic commentary on the CRPD effectively covers all the issues arising from international disability law and practice, and will be an ideal resource for all working in the field.

This volume studies the implications of the right to inclusive education in human rights law for disability law, policy and practice.

The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations in the 21st century. It seeks to secure the equal and effective enjoyment of human rights for the estimated 650 million persons with disabilities in the world. It does so by tailoring gerneral human rights norms to their circumstances. It reflects and advances the shift away from welfare to rights in the context of disability. The Convention itself represents a mix between non-discrimination and other substantive human rights and gives practical effect to the idea that all human rights are indivisible and interdependent. This collection of essays examines these developments from the global, European and Scandinavian perspectives and the challenge of transposing its provisions into national law. It marks the coming of age of disabilty as a core human rights concern.

A timely examination of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, this first thorough comparative analysis contrasts the approaches of thirteen jurisdictions to reveal a legal area of growing importance.