The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This volume undertakes a multidisciplinary examination of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It brings together an emerging community of scholars in the disability field whose pioneering research examines the significance of the Convention and the barriers to its operationalisation and implementation. The entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) marks a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. The Convention requires that persons with disabilities are no longer to be seen as objects of charity; rather they are subjects and rights holders on par with everyone else. The Convention necessitates a move beyond formal guarantees of equality towards proactive measures that improve the daily lives of persons with disabilities. As such the UNCRPD is driving a worldwide law reform movement. This movement places a premium on having relevant comparative knowledge to drive that process throughout the world. This book will provide novel perspectives on the Convention under a number of different themes. The themes include legal capacity, mental health, independent living, education, and employment and the intersectionality of disability. The book also takes a regional look at the Convention and the role that the Convention will play in developing disability law and policy in those regions. These themes are of huge importance for policy makers, non-governmental organisations, disability persons' organisations and State Parties to the Convention.