Resources search

The temporalities of supported decision-making by people with cognitive disability

WIESEL, Ilan
SMITH, Elizabeth
BIGBY, Christine
THEN, Shih-Ning
DOUGLAS, Jacinta
CARNEY, Terry
2020

Expand view

In many societies, people with cognitive disability have been pre- sumed to lack reasoned decision-making capacity. Consequently, substituted decision-making laws and practices have traditionally authorised some people such as parents, guardians or medical professionals, to make decisions on their behalf. Several countries are now moving towards an alternative supported decision-making paradigm whereby people with different cognitive abilities are supported to make decisions that reflect as much as possible their ‘will, preferences and rights’. In this paper we examine how geo- graphical thinking about temporalities might illuminate some of the legal, ethical and practical complexities of supported decision- making. The paper draws on qualitative data from interviews with people with intellectual disabilities or acquired brain injury, and those who support them in making decisions. We examine how temporal scales and boundaries shape the determination of decision-making capacity; how decision-makers’ ‘will and preferences’ are interpreted by supporters; and how the labour of support for decision-making is organised. We argue that further geographical engagement with supported decision-making can help significantly advance this important disability rights agenda.

Inclusive Governance sector guiding note on COVID-19

April 2020

Expand view

Humanity & Inclusion inclusive governance approach fits in with the governments (national, regional and local) context, governments are in charge of the response to the crisis. In these types of contexts, humanitarian actors do not have the leadership and mandate to make decisions. Governments are creating policies in response to Covid-19 and must include persons with disabilities as equal citizens within their response frameworks. 

Key messages :

  • DO NO HARM: Protect yourself and your family, staff, partners and of course the beneficiaries.
  • Work closely with other stakeholders and ensure coordination in the response is happening at all levels
  • Follow HI’s guidelines and the guidance from the national and local authorities regarding COVID 19 at all times. 

English pages 1-7 and français ci-dessous pages 7-13.

Informe regional America Latina Bajo El enfoque de la convencion sobre los derechos de las personas con discapicidad

March 2019

Expand view

Este primer informe regional de la situación de las personas con discapacidad en América Latina ha sido elaborado por RIADIS con la finalidad de realizar un primer acercamiento al estado de la implementación de los ODS bajo el enfoque de la CDPD y la reformulación del Programa de Acción del Decenio de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA). En este sentido, el informe pretende identificar los avances y buenas prácticas que se encuentran realizando los gobiernos de la región en materia de la aplicación de la CDPD a través de la implementación de los ODS en la región, así como establecer las oportunidades y los desafíos que se presentan para que las organizaciones de personas con discapacidad puedan seguir conquistando nuevos espacios y haciendo efectivo el ejercicio pleno de sus derechos. El presente informe se enfoca en diez principales áreas temáticas, identificadas como prioritarias por las personas con discapacidad de la región, quienes aportaron al abordaje de las mismas, tanto a través de las respuestas que se recopilaron de la encuesta inicial, como a través de las contribuciones grupales e individuales obtenidas en el taller de revisión del borrador del informe regional.

 

Las diez áreas temáticas que se abordan en el presente informe son las siguientes: 1. Educación inclusiva 2. Mujeres con discapacidad 3. Personas indígenas con discapacidad 4. Inclusión laboral de las personas con discapacidad 5. Reducción de riesgos de desastres y acción humanitaria 6. Accesibilidad 7. Acceso a la justicia 8. Derecho a vivir de forma independiente y ser incluido en la comunidad 9. Recopilación de datos 10. Participación de las personas con discapacidad

Tensions and unity in the struggle for citizenship: Swedish disability rights activists claim ‘Full Participation! Now!’

SÉPULCHRE, Marie
2018

Expand view

This article analyses the claims of contemporary disability rights activists mobilising in a context where de facto second- class citizenship co-exists with legal and political declarations about the rights of disabled people. As an empirical case, it focuses on the blog ‘Full Participation.Now’, which was initiated by disability rights activists in Sweden. Drawing upon citizenship research, the article points to the tensions and dilemmas featuring the bloggers’ demand for participation and equality, as well as the challenges relative to their struggle. Although the bloggers formulate contrasting arguments, the article highlights that the activists share a common aspiration for ‘full citizenship’.

Normality and disability: intersections among norms, law, and culture

GOGGIN, Gerald
STEELE, Linda
CADWALLADER, Jessica
April 2017

Expand view

The central aim of this anthology of papers is to consider the place of law in political, social, scientific and biomedical developments relating to disability and other categories of ‘abnormality’. The papers consider how categories of abnormality relate to the privileged and frequently unmarked position of ‘normality’ and how legal interventions in abnormality relate to existing normative designations in the dominant cultural imaginary. This collection of papers has a range of disciplinary approaches

Paper titles:

  • Fit or fitting in: deciding against normal when reproducing the future
  • Eccentricity: the case for undermining legal categories of disability and normalcy
  • Eugenics and the normal body: the role of visual images and intelligence testing in framing the treatment of people with disabilities in the early twentieth century
  • The construction of access: the eugenic precedent of the Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Disability and torture: exception, epistemology and ‘black sites’
  • Mental capacity and states of exception: revisiting disability law with Giorgio Agamben
  • Not just language: an analysis of discursive constructions of disability in sentencing remarks
  • Policing normalcy: sexual violence against women offenders with disability
  • ‘The government is the cause of the disease and we are stuck with the symptoms’: deinstitutionalisation, mental health advocacy and police shootings in 1990s Victoria
  • Disruptive, dangerous and disturbing: the ‘challenge’ of behaviour in the construction of normalcy and vulnerability
  • Making the abject: problem-solving courts, addiction, mental illness and impairment
  • Cripwashing: the abortion debates at the crossroads of gender and disability in the Spanish media
  • ‘Figurehead’ hate crime cases: developing a framework for understanding and exposing the ‘problem’ with ‘disability’

Continuum 

Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol.31, No.3, pp. 337-340

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1275077

Human rights and disability: A manual for national human rights institutions

CROWTHER, Neil
QUINN, Gerard
REKAS, Abigail
March 2017

Expand view

(Updated Dec 2018)

This Manual is designed to provide practical guidance for national human rights institutions (NHRIs) that are actively working to advance the human rights of persons with disabilities, as well as those NHRIs that are seeking to strengthen their efforts in this area. This Manual provides practical guidance and recommendations about how the role and functions of NHRIs can be directed to provide better protection for persons with disabilities, to promote greater awareness and respect for their rights, and to monitor the progress made and obstacles encountered in advancing their rights.

There are three parts to the manual.

  • Part I: The concepts - the human rights framing of disability
  • Part II: The law - international human rights law and disability (CRPD and others)
  • Part III: The practice - what NHRIs can do to contribute to the process of change

 

 

Progress Report on the implementation of the European Disability Strategy (2010-2020)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
February 2017

Expand view

The Strategy is the main instrument to support the EU's implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Progress in all eight areas of the strategy is reported: accessibility, participation, equality, employment, education and training, social protection, health and external action. Initiatives such as the Directive on Web Accessibility, the proposal for a European Accessibility Act, the EU Disability Card project (being piloted in 8 Member States) and provisions in the Erasmus+ programme (allowing better mobility for students with disabilities) are highlighted. 

 

This report presents progress achieved in the first five years of the Strategy and assesses implementation. Many stakeholders have contributed to this work. The United Nations reviewed how the EU has been implementing its obligations under the UNCRPD3, and issued Concluding Observations with concrete recommendations for follow-up. These contain guidance on priority issues while also highlighting the steps already taken (see Annex 3). The European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee subsequently prepared their own reports on the implementation of the UNCRPD, while civil society organisations provided analysis and proposals (see Annex 4). The Commission also launched a public consultation to collect views from a broad range of stakeholders on the current situation of persons with disabilities and the impact of the Strategy so far, gathering more than 1,500 contributions (see Annex 1). This report also looks at the role of the supporting instruments and at the implementation of the UNCRPD within the EU institutions. Finally, it looks ahead at how the Strategy will continue to deliver on its objectives. In addition, the report includes a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of EU legal acts with an impact on disability matters (Annex 5)

 

SWD(2017) 29 final

Disability law and reasonable accommodation beyond employment. A legal analysis of the situation in EU Member States.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTOR-GENERAL FOR JUSTICE AND CONSUMERS
WADDINGTON, Lisa
BRODERICK, Andrea
POULOS, Anne
November 2016

Expand view

This report analyses the situation in the 28 EU Member States with regard to obligations to provide reasonable accommodation outside the field of employment. More specifically, the report outlines the duties contained in Member States’ laws and policies with respect to reasonable accommodation in the areas covered by the 2008 proposal of the European Commission for a directive to protect people from discrimination on the ground of disability, as well as discrimination on a number of other grounds (henceforth 2008 proposal). The 2008 proposal addresses the fields of social protection, including social security, healthcare and social housing; education; and access to, and supply of, goods and services, including housing. It seeks to prohibit six kinds of discrimination including, in the context of disability, an unjustified denial of a reasonable accommodation

DOI: 10.2838/15305

Toolkit on disability for Africa

UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS (UNDESA)
November 2016

Expand view

A Toolkit on Disability for Africa has been developed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD). It is designed for the African context and aims to:

  • Provide practical tools on various disability-related issues to government officials, members of parliament, civil and public servants at all levels, disabled persons organizations (DPOs) and all those with an interest in the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society and development;
  • Support the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and disability-inclusive development;
  • Offer examples of good practices from many countries in the African region.

 

Toolkit Modules:

  • UN DESA toolkit on CRPD – Trainers’ tips
  • Introducing the UNCRPD
  • Frameworks for implementing and monitoring the UNCRPD
  • Disability-inclusive development
  • Accessibility
  • Building multi-stakeholders partnerships for disability inclusion
  • National plans on disability
  • Legislating for disability rights
  • Access to justice for persons with disabilities
  • The rights of persons with disabilities to work
  • Inclusive health services for persons with disabilities
  • Participation in political and public life
  • Information and communication technology (ICT) and disability
  • Culture, beliefs, and disability
  • Inclusive education

EU implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

ANGLMAYER, Irmgard
February 2016

Expand view

"This in-depth analysis, produced by the Ex-Post Impact Assessment Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), looks into the state of play of the implementation by the European Union of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), after the first round of the review process. The Convention's overarching principles entail mainstreaming of disability rights across all policies and within all institutions. This paper analyses the institutional arrangements required to monitor the implementation process, and subsequently puts the recommendations of the CRPD Committee ('Concluding Observations') into a broader context, outlining the progress made so far and the challenges ahead"

DOI: 10.2861/831248

Guidance on victim assistance reporting

2016

Expand view

In addition to a brief overview of victim assistance in the context of international humanitarian and human rights law, the Guidance on Victim Assistance Reporting is presented in two main parts: an overview of reporting obligations under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, the CCM, and Protocol V to the CCW, and available guidance on these obligations; and, the introduction of a consistent approach to comprehensive victim assistance reporting. To support this approach, the Guidance on Victim Assistance Reporting includes in its Annexes a detailed questionnaire which is intended to provide guidance to States on the collection of relevant information to enhance their reporting, and sample reports using the questionnaire as a guide.

The Guidance was developed in consultation with key stakeholders, including members of the Victim Assistance Committee, victim assistance coordinators for the CCM and Protocol V to the CCW, as well as relevant United Nations and other international agencies, NGOs and disability actors

Mainstreaming disability in the new development paradigm : evaluation of Norwegian support to promote the rights of persons with disabilities

INGDAL, Nora
NILSSON, Annika
2012

Expand view

"This report is the result of an external and independent evaluation of the Norwe¬gian Support to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the last 11 years. The intention of the evaluation is to analyse the results of targeted and mainstreamed initiatives towards achieving the rights of persons with disabilities...The methodology included field visits in the four case countries: Malawi, Nepal, the Palestinian territory and Uganda to obtain a deeper understanding of how the rights of persons with disabilities have been promoted, and estimate the possible contributions of the Norwegian support. Afghanistan was included as a desk study"
Note: The report is available electronically and in printed version. A braille copy can be downloaded from the web. The four country reports, written in English, are available electronically. The summaries of the country studies are made available electronically, with translations to the relevant local languages Nepali, Arabic and Chewa. In addition an easy-read version in English and Norwegian of the main report is available electronically

Study of disability in EC development cooperation

COLERIDGE, Peter
SIMONNOT, Claude
STEVERLYNCK, Dominique
October 2010

Expand view

The study examines how effectively the EC cooperation has reached persons with disabilities and provides a set of recommendations in order to comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This report is useful for people interested in disability and development
Lot nr 4
Contract nr 2009/212558

Case of Alajos Kiss v Hungary

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
May 2010

Expand view

This document is a transcript of the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Alajos Kiss v Hungary. The applicant, diagnosed with manic depression, found that his name was removed from the electoral register because he was subject to partial guardianship. The court found that this action breached Article 4 of Protocol No 1 to the CRPD
Note: there is a language versions tab at the top of the page which enables access to official translations of this document in English and French and to unofficial translations in the Russian, Serbian and Turkish languages

Implementation toolkit : disability rights = human rights

DISABLED PEOPLES' INTERNATIONAL (DPI)
2006

Expand view

DPI, an international cross-disability human rights organization has put together this practical toolkit to support implementation campaigns for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The toolkit supports a previous DPI 'Ratification Toolkit', also available free online. The toolkit is an accessible and practical guide for anyone interested in disability rights and social development. It provides a clear introduction to the aims of the Convention along with practical suggestions for translating this treaty into policy, planning and practice. Each section of the toolkit comes with exercises designed to support understanding of the Convention and how it can be applied to different contexts

E-bulletin