Though the explicit provisions of CRPD enunciate the rights of persons with disabilities the philosophy informing these rights, as also the procedure followed for arriving at the text of the CRPD cannot be limited to disability alone. It is important to note that the CRPD is a human rights instrument and hence universal law. As the CRPD is just about ready to come into force, it is neither empirically possible nor normatively desirable to assess whether or not it will change the situation of persons with disabilities on the ground. As already mentioned the CRPD has just obtained the last of the ratifications that was required to bring it into force. Hyderabad: Orient Longman Hyderabad, 2005.Īnd the Child Rights Convention are often mentioned in order to establish this point. Women development and the UN - A sixty year quest for equality and justice. Studies documenting the impact of the Women's Convention 5įor a comprehensive analysis of women's engagement with the United Nations see Jain, D. 4Ĭonvention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, presentation made at the Critical Legal Studies Conference at NALSAR Hyderabad India 1 st to 3 rd Sep. Despite these happy developments, persons with disabilities are continually informed that their expectations from the United Nation system were naive and unreal. Insofar as international human rights law goes, the process of negotiating, drafting, adopting and enforcing the CRPD has been a relatively quick one. 3Īrticle 45(1) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) lays down that the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession. The Convention thus came into force on the 3 rd of May. The Convention required 20 ratifications to come into force and the last of these instruments was deposited with the UN Secretariat on 3 rd of April 2008. A new human rights convention may not arouse optimism, especially when the convention addresses the concerns of a special group as is the case with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter CRPD), which was adopted by the General Assembly on the 13 th of December, 2006 and was opened for signature by State parties on 30 th March, 2007. It is in this environment of growing skepticism, which the reform efforts have in no way curbed, that the United Nations has adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. UN Human Rights Treaty Body Reform Towards a Permanent Unified Treaty Body. Amongst them being a reconstitution of the permanent members of the Security Council and the effort to restructure and reform the treaty implementation bodies. These criticisms along with others have prompted some of the structural reform efforts that engage the attention of the World body. 2008.įurther the human rights instruments which were a mechanism to obtain accountability from States have yielded meager benefits to the people on the ground instead these Charters of universal values have become a convenient stick in the hand of the first world with which to batter the third world. For a bibliography of writings on reforming the United Nations see. The United Nations it has been contended is not in harmony with the hopes and aspirations of the global south and operates much more like the hand maiden of the first world countries. This challenge has included the raising of queries on the relevance of the United Nations system, which was founded on the power dynamics of the post war world. The emergence of a unipolar world has resulted in traditional understandings of international law to be challenged. Keywords: Persons with disabilities - Welfare - Discrimination - Autonomy - Indivisibility - Participation This is because the Convention alters the lexicon of disability rights and offers fresh insight on the way to resolve some perennial human rights dilemmas. The Article examines the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is the first human rights instrument of the millennium to understand how the disability rights discourse has been altered, and to contribute to human rights jurisprudence. Constructing a new Human Rights lexicon: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities