CRPD/C/GC/6
5.
Equality and non-discrimination are at the core of all human rights treaties. The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights prohibit discrimination on an open list of grounds,
from which article 5 of the Convention originated. All of the thematic United Nations
human rights conventions 1 aim to establish equality and eliminate discrimination, and
contain provisions on equality and non-discrimination. The Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities has taken into account the experiences offered by the other
conventions, and its equality and non-discrimination principles represent the evolution of
the United Nations tradition and approach.
6.
The term “dignity” appears in the Convention more often than in any other United
Nations human rights convention. It is included in the preamble, in which States parties
recall the Charter of the United Nations and the principles proclaimed therein, which
recognize the inherent dignity and worth and the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
7.
Equality and non-discrimination are at the heart of the Convention and evoked
consistently throughout its substantive articles with the repeated use of the wording “on an
equal basis with others”, which links all substantive rights of the Convention to the nondiscrimination principle. Dignity, integrity and equality of the person have been denied to
those with actual or perceived impairments. Discrimination has occurred and continues to
occur, including in brutal forms such as non-consensual and/or forced systematic
sterilizations and medical or hormone-based interventions (e.g. lobotomy or the Ashley
treatment), forced drugging and forced electroshocks, confinement, systematic murder
labelled “euthanasia”, forced and coerced abortion, denied access to health care, and
mutilation and trafficking in body parts, particularly of persons with albinism.
III. The human rights model of disability and inclusive equality
8.
Individual or medical models of disability prevent the application of the equality
principle to persons with disabilities. Under the medical model of disability, persons with
disabilities are not recognized as rights holders but are instead “reduced” to their
impairments. Under these models, discriminatory or differential treatment against and the
exclusion of persons with disabilities is seen as the norm and is legitimized by a medically
driven incapacity approach to disability. Individual or medical models were used to
determine the earliest international laws and policies relating to disability, even after the
first attempts to apply the concept of equality to the context of disability. The Declaration
on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons (1971) and the Declaration on the Rights of
Disabled Persons (1975) were the first human rights instruments that contained equality and
non-discrimination provisions for persons with disabilities. While these early soft-law
human rights instruments paved the way for an equality approach to disability, they were
still based on the medical model of disability, as impairment was seen as a legitimate
ground for restricting or denying rights. They also include language that is now considered
inappropriate or obsolete. A further step was taken in 1993 with the adoption of the
Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, which
proclaimed “equality of opportunities” a fundamental concept of disability policy and law.
9.
The human rights model of disability recognizes that disability is a social construct
and impairments must not be taken as a legitimate ground for the denial or restriction of
human rights. It acknowledges that disability is one of several layers of identity. Hence,
disability laws and policies must take the diversity of persons with disabilities into account.
It also recognizes that human rights are interdependent, interrelated and indivisible.
1
2
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on
the Rights of the Child; the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families; and the International Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance.