Introduction to Disability, Rights and Law Reform in Australia: Pushing Beyond Legal Futures

Steele, LR; Beaupert, F; Gooding, P

Introduction to Disability, Rights and Law Reform in Australia: Pushing Beyond Legal Futures

Steele, LR

Beaupert, F Gooding, P

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Law in context (Bundoora, Vic.), 2017, 35 (2), pp. 1 - 14
Issue Date:: 2017-12

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Steele, LR https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6944-7888	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Beaupert, F	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Gooding, P	en_US
dc.date.issued	2017-12	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Law in context (Bundoora, Vic.), 2017, 35 (2), pp. 1 - 14	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0811-5796	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/125090
dc.description.abstract	The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities1 (CRPD), which entered into force in May 2008, has been hailed by disability rights scholars and activists as effecting monumental shifts in the status of people with disability2 under international human rights law. A key reason is that the CRPD embodies a ‘social model’ understanding of disability, focused on systemic factors and barriers to equality, that is in contrast to the earlier reductive, individualised ‘medical models’ of disability apparent in international human rights law that legitimated differential treatment of people with disability on the basis of their purported internal, pathological deficits.3 Some have even claimed that the CRPD moves beyond a social model, to introduce a ‘human rights model’ of disability. Theresia Degener, the current Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the UN Committee), argues that although the social model holds strong explanatory power in identifying the formation of disability, it does not affirm the inherent human dignity of people with disability and attribute them with the capacity to hold human rights regardless of impairment.4 According to Degener, the human rights model creates a broader framework for achieving social justice, offering not just an explanation, but a prescription for change.5 Perhaps time will tell whether this is true or not, but it is certainly the case that the CRPD is among the longest and most detailed of all UN human rights treaties, elucidating rights in the disability context in a range of areas of life, including rights to work, education, health services, transportation, access to justice, and accessibility of the physical and social environment	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Law in context (Bundoora, Vic.)	en_US
dc.title	Introduction to Disability, Rights and Law Reform in Australia: Pushing Beyond Legal Futures	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	35	en_US
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - HJ - Health Justice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	35	en_US

Abstract:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities1 (CRPD), which entered into force in May 2008, has been hailed by disability rights scholars and activists as effecting monumental shifts in the status of people with disability2 under international human rights law. A key reason is that the CRPD embodies a ‘social model’ understanding of disability, focused on systemic factors and barriers to equality, that is in contrast to the earlier reductive, individualised ‘medical models’ of disability apparent in international human rights law that legitimated differential treatment of people with disability on the basis of their purported internal, pathological deficits.3 Some have even claimed that the CRPD moves beyond a social model, to introduce a ‘human rights model’ of disability. Theresia Degener, the current Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the UN Committee), argues that although the social model holds strong explanatory power in identifying the formation of disability, it does not affirm the inherent human dignity of people with disability and attribute them with the capacity to hold human rights regardless of impairment.4 According to Degener, the human rights model creates a broader framework for achieving social justice, offering not just an explanation, but a prescription for change.5 Perhaps time will tell whether this is true or not, but it is certainly the case that the CRPD is among the longest and most detailed of all UN human rights treaties, elucidating rights in the disability context in a range of areas of life, including rights to work, education, health services, transportation, access to justice, and accessibility of the physical and social environment

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/125090