The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Possibilities and Perils

This paper will explore the possibilities and perils of using the Convention on the Rights of Persons wtih Disabilities (CRPD) to advance equality for people with disabilities. It will demonstrate how the CRPD has adopted unique language that has the potential to achieve more than earlier UN treaties such as CEDAW and the Conventionon the Rights of the Child. At the same time, one has to be cognizant about the limitations of engaging with law, particularly international human rights law. The processes in place operate at a very slow pace and may not necessarily be the most effective tool for advancing social justice. I propose that social movements use the CRPD strategically in tandem with other grassroots approaches to raise awareness and transform domestic law of state parties in a direction that promotes the social model of disablement. I believe that the study will show that there is recursive relationship between domestic law and the embryonic development of international disability law. However, this relationship may very from country to country, depending on the state of domestic disablity rights. One goal of this research is to develop a typology of understanding international law in countries with differing development of disability rights law.