This extensive study explores ways in which the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities may be enacted in the lives of individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. A broad range of rights, issues, and research is examined related to health, education, the law, sexuality, parenting, and daily living, with the goal of exploring the history of concerns and barriers to rights enactment. Examples of rights promotion programs are described and strategy recommendations are provided for organizations and self-advocates committed to the promotion of the authentic enactment of human rights.

Inequality: Marcia H. Rioux

A book such as this both demonstrates the progress that has been made over recent years, and will also serve to enhance respect for the human rights of persons with intellectual disabilities in the years to come.' - From the Foreword by Orville Endicott This wide-ranging volume provides a multidisciplinary examination of human rights and the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. The book combines historical, psychological, philosophical, social, educational, medical and legal perspectives to form a unique and insightful account of the subject. Initial chapters explain the historical context of rights for people with intellectual disabilities, including the right to life, and propose a conceptual framework to inform contemporary practice. Contributors then explore the many theoretical and practical challenges that people with intellectual disabilities face, in exercising their civil rights, educational rights or participatory rights, for instance. The implications arising from these issues are identified and practical guidelines for support and accommodation are provided. This book will be an essential resource for practitioners, advocates, lawyers, policy-makers and students on disability courses.

Human Rights and Disability Advocacy brings together perspectives from civil society representatives who played key roles in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, shedding light on the emergent practices of a "new diplomacy" and the larger enterprise of human rights advocacy at the international level.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Disability Human Rights Law" that was published in Laws

The Training Guide is for facilitators of training courses on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol who are already familiar with the international human rights system. The Convention challenges customs and behavior based on stereotypes, prejudices, harmful practices and stigma relating to persons with disabilities, and promotes their full participation in all spheres of life. It is already applicable in 137 countries around the world. The Training Guide's methodology is interactive and promotes a participatory approach. Its modules can be used to develop tailored training courses to meet the needs of specific audiences (government officials, health professionals, civil society, employers' organizations, etc.). It is also helpful as a general information resource on the Convention and its Optional Protocol.

The formerly established medically-based idea of disability, with its charity-based approach to treatment and services, is being replaced by a human rights-based approach in which people with impairments are no longer considered medical problems, totally dependent on the beneficence of non-impaired people in society, but have fundamental rights to support, inclusion, and participation. This interdisciplinary book examines the diverse concerns that people with impairments face in the context of human rights, provides insights into new developments on important issues relating human rights to disability, and features new approaches and solutions to vital problems in the current debate.

Disability is defined by hierarchy. Regardless of culture or context, persons with disabilities are almost always pushed to the bottom of the social hierarchy. With the advent of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), disability human rights seemingly provided a path forward for tearing down ableist social hierarchies and ensuring that all persons with disabilities everywhere were treated equally. Despite important progress, the disability human rights project not only remains incomplete, but has often created new hierarchies among persons with disabilities themselves or across the human rights it promotes. Certain groups of persons with disabilities have gained new voices while others remain silenced and certain rights are prioritized over others depending on what states, international organizations, or advocates want rather than what those on the ground need most. This volume was inspired both by the continued need to expose human rights violations against persons with disabilities, but to also explore the nuanced role that hierarchies play in the spread, implementation, and protection of disability human rights. The enjoyment of human rights is not equal nor is the recognition of specific individuals and groups’ rights. In order to change this situation, inequalities across the disability human rights movement must be explored. Divided into five parts: Who counts as disabled? Political, social, and cultural context Which rights on top, whose rights on bottom? Pushed to the periphery in the disability rights movement Representations of disability and comprised of 34 newly-written chapters including case-studies from the Anglophone Caribbean, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, India, Israel, Kenya, Latin America, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Serbia and South Africa, and other countries, this book will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, human rights law and social policy.

Societal views on the human rights of persons with disabilities have significantly changed over the last four decades. However, while achieving equality, autonomy, nondiscrimination, participation, and inclusion should be a priority, abuses and violations of rights often occur in the most immediate environments of people with intellectual disability. This book is intended to provide greater visibility to people with intellectual disability, as full subjects of rights and improve their quality of life from a perspective of human rights, citizenship, and contextual analysis. We discuss the role of context, the provision of inclusive environments, and the improved health status at promoting quality of life-related personal outcomes and enhancing quality of life and equality for people with intellectual disability.