Resources search

The ideology of Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) reflected in the phrase ‘Nothing about us without us’, was first put forward in the 1990s. Although it aimed to place research control in the hands of the ‘researched’, i.e., people with disability, this rarely happens even today, 25 years later.

The Community Action Research on Disability (CARD) programme in Uganda embraced and modified the EDR approach, recognising the need for including people with disability in the research process from concept to outcome, and nurturing participation and collaboration between all the stakeholders in achieving action-based research. The research teams always included people with disability and staff from Disability People’s Organisations (DPOs) as well as academics and service providers. It endeavoured to generate and carry out research around issues that mattered to people with disability and their families. Leadership roles were assigned by team members. The objectives of the CARD programme were: (1) to fund teams to carry out action-based research on disability in Uganda; (2) to develop research and administrative capacity to manage the initiative within the academic registrar’s office at Kyambogo University; (3) to incorporate new knowledge generated from the studies into the ongoing local community-based rehabilitation and special education courses; and, (4) to ensure wide dissemination of research findings to all stakeholder groups.

CARD ran for 5 years, commissioning 21 action research studies in the field of disability and community-based services. This paper describes the process, presents the 12 completed studies, examines the extent to which the objectives were achieved and evaluates the experiences of the participating research teams, particularly in relation to the inclusion of its members with disability. It concludes with recommendations for future initiatives designed to promote validity, good value and inclusive approaches in disability research.

"Being disabled in Britain is a review into disability inequality in Great Britain. It builds on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory five-yearly report on equality and human rights progress in England, Scotland and Wales, Is Britain Fairer?.

We want this report to be used by UK and devolved governments to make improvements to law and policies, by local government to ensure services meet the needs of disabled people, and by disability groups to strengthen their case for change.

The report includes chapters on six areas of life, including education, work, health, justice and participation in politics, looking at where there has been progress and where there are still serious issues to be tackled. It also looks the experiences of those with different impairments and how these impact on people’s life chances"

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a watershed in the human rights of users and survivors of psychiatry. This course is offered with an emphasis on how users and survivors of psychiatry can use the CRPD to advance human rights of persons with disabilities.

The Convention of course guarantees the rights of all persons with disabilities, in all their diversity.  Major constituencies organized at the international level included the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, World Federation of the Deaf, World Blind Union, World Federation of the Deafblind, Inclusion International (persons with intellectual disabilities and their families), International Federation of Hard of Hearing Persons, and Disabled Peoples’ International (cross-disability).  They organized all disabled people’s organizations and allies into the International Disability Caucus, and aimed for the Convention to be equally relevant to all persons with disabilities irrespective of the type of disability or geographical location.  Every constituency finds what it needs in the text, and the Convention can be approached from a number of different starting points to uncover its potential.

The course is taught by Tina Minkowitz, Esq., a human rights lawyer and survivor of psychiatry who was instrumental in developing the relevant provisions.  She represented the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP) in the drafting and negotiation of the CRPD, and subsequently founded the Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (CHRUSP).

The overall goal of the Council of Europe Disability Strategy (2017-2023) is to achieve equality, dignity and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in specific areas where the Council of Europe can make an input. In order to ensure independence, freedom of choice, full and active participation in all areas of life and society, the strategy highlights work and activities required in five priority areas:

1. Equality and non-discrimination

2. Awareness raising

3. Accessibility

4. Equal recognition before the law

5. Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

The strategy also proposes action targeting five cross-cutting themes: participation, co-operation and co-ordination, universal design and reasonable accommodation, gender equality perspective, multiple discrimination and education and training. 

"Ensuring equal opportunities for persons with disabilities is an important facilitator of participation and inclusion in society. Both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the Council of Europe Disability Strategy 2017-2023 address equality and equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities. Article 5 of the UNCPRD requires States to adopt positive measures aimed at ensuring equality across the substantive rights in the Convention. The Council of Europe Disability Strategy aims at guiding and supporting the activities of Council of Europe member States in their implementation of the UNCRPD and Council of Europe standards regarding disability, and similarly addresses equality and non-discrimination.

The overall goal of this study is to analyse the obligations contained in the UNCRPD regarding equality and non-discrimination, and to provide examples of good national practices regarding equality and non-discrimination"

(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

This report documents how thousands of children in Armenia live in orphanages, residential special schools for children with disabilities, and other institutions. The report is based on Human Rights Watch visits to five state-run orphanages and ten state-run schools, including six special schools and four mainstream schools, and interviews with 173 people, in eight cities in Armenia. They interviewed 47 children and young adults, and 63 families of children living in orphanages, attending special schools or attending mainstream schools. They also interviewed directors of orphanages, special schools, and mainstream schools, as well as social workers, doctors, teachers, psychologists, caregivers, and other staff in institutions

Topics include: overview of residential institutions in Armenia; institutionalization of children and young adults and discrimination in the deinstitutionalization process; problems for children and young adults in residential institutions; lives transformed; national and international legal obligations; failure to guarantee quality education to children with disabilities; other forms of education for children with disabilities; government and donors’ response; recommendations

"The present report, mandated by the Human Rights Council in resolution 32/18, identifies some of the major challenges faced by users of mental health services, persons with mental health conditions and persons with psychosocial disabilities. These include stigma and discrimination, violations of economic, social and other rights and the denial of autonomy and legal capacity.

In the report, the High Commissioner recommends a number of policy shifts, which would support the full realisation of the human rights of those populations, such as the systematic inclusion of human rights in policy and the recognition of the individual’s autonomy, agency and dignity. Such changes cover measures to improve the quality of mental health service delivery, to put an end to involuntary treatment and institutionalisation and to create a legal and policy environment that is conducive to the realisation of the human rights of persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities"

A/HRC/34/32

Human Rights Council, Thirty-fourth session, 27 February-24 March 2017