Disability Human Rights
63 Pages Posted: 4 May 2006
Abstract
Responding to the absence of an international treaty expressly protecting people with disabilities, the United Nations is sponsoring a disability-based human rights convention. The Article examines the implications of adding disability to the existing canon of human rights by adopting a disability human rights paradigm. It argues that, because disability rights necessarily invoke civil and political rights, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights, a disability framework presents a strong exemplar for viewing established human rights protections as being similarly indivisible. Hence, groups whose rights historically have been divided, for example, women, could be strengthened. Moreover, utilizing a disability-based perspective could also extend human rights to currently unprotected individuals, including sexual minorities and the poor. Building on (as well as critiquing) the feminist political philosophy of Martha Nussbaum, the Article maintains that the "capability approach" provides a cogent space for understanding the scope of disability-related, as well as general, human rights. It demonstrates that, because a capabilities framework values each person as his or her own end, it can be combined with a disability framework to offer a normative theory of human rights that enables individuals to flourish more completely. The Article concludes with some thoughts on the broader ramifications of viewing disability as a universal experience. In arguing that disability-based rights concepts should be extended to other groups (rather than the reverse), the Article stakes out a unique perspective.
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