CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 367Disability Rights and RepresentationDiscrimination and Equality LawLegal Rights and Human Rights

Disability in a Human Rights Context

Open access
Degener, Theresia·2016·Laws
DOI 10.3390/laws5030035
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a modern human rights treaty with innovative components. It impacts on disability studies as well as human rights law. Two innovations are scrutinized in this article: the model of disability and the equality and discrimination concepts of the CRPD. It is argued that the CRPD manifests a shift from the medical model to the human rights model of disability. Six propositions are offered why and how the human rights model differs from the social model of disability. It is further maintained that the CRPD introduces a new definition of discrimination into international public law. The underlying equality concept can be categorized as transformative equality with both individual and group oriented components. The applied methodology of this research is legal doctrinal analysis and disability studies model analysis. The main finding is that the human rights model of disability improves the social model of disability. Three different models of disability can be attributed to different concepts of equality. The medical model corresponds with formal equality, while the social model with substantive equality and the human rights model can be linked with transformative equality.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3390/laws5030035

Cites

5 of 5 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • As rights-bearing subjects, persons with disabilities are bestowed the whole range of social, economic and cultural rights to experience dignified living and equitable participation commensurate with their non-disabled peers.

    “As rights-bearing subjects, persons with disabilities are bestowed the whole range of social, economic and cultural rights to experience dignified living and equitable participation commensurate with their non-disabled peers (Degener 2016).”

    From Accessibility and universal design in higher education curricula: implications for inclusion/exclusion (2025) · cites this paper as Degener 2016

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 66

  1. United Nations. "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." United Nations Treaties Series, 2008, vol. 2515, p. 3. Available online: https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%202515/v2515.pdf (accessed on 19 August 2016).
  2. Andrea Broderick. "The Long and Winding Road to Equality and Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities." Ph.D. Dissertation, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 20 November 2015.
  3. Theresia Degener. "A human rights model of disability." In Routledge Handbook of Disability Law and Human Rights. Edited by Blanck Peter and Flynn Eilionoir. London and New York: Routledge, 2017, pp. 31-50.
  4. Jerome Bickenbach. Physical Disability and Social Policy. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
  5. Barbara Altmann. "Disability Definitions, Models, Classification Schemes, and Application." In Handbook of Disability Studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication, 2001, pp. 97-122.
  6. Tom Shakespeare. Disability Rights and Wrongs. New York: Routledge, 2006.
  7. Amita Dhanda. "Legal capacity in the disability rights convention." Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 34 (2007): 429-62.
  8. Eilionoir Flynn, and Anna Arstein-Kerslake. "Legislating Personhood: Realising the Right to Support in Exercising Legal Capacity." International Journal of Law in Context 10 (2014): 81-104. [CrossRef] · DOI
  9. Rosemary Kayess, and Philipp French. "Out of Darkness into Light?" Human Rights Law Review 1 (2008): 1-34. [CrossRef] · DOI · Paper page
  10. Stefan Trömel. "A Personal Perspective on the Drafting History of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." In European Yearbook of Disability Law. Edited by Gerard Quinn and Lisa Waddington. Antwerpen: Intesentia, 2009, pp. 115-38.
  11. Rannveig Traustadottir. "Disability Studies, the Social Model and Legal Developments." In The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Edited by Oddný Mjöll Arnadóttir and Gerard Quinn. Leiden: Martinus Njhoff, 2009, pp. 3-16.
  12. Michael Oliver. Understanding Disability. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
  13. Theresia Degener, and Gerard Quinn. "A Survey of International, Comparative and Regional Disability Law Reform." In Disability Rights Law and Policy. Edited by Mary Lou Breslin and Silvia Yee. New York: Transnational, 2002, pp. 3-128.
  14. Anna Lawson. Disability and Equality Law in Britain: The Role of Reasonable Adjustment. Oxford: Hart, 2008.
  15. Anna Lawson, and Caroline Gooding. Disability Rights in Europe. From Theory to Practice. Oxford: Hart, 2005.
  16. Mark Priestley. "We're all Europeans now! The social model of disability and European social policy." In The Social Model of Disability. Edited by Colin Barnes and Geoff Mercer. Leeds: Disability Press, 2005.
  17. Caroline Gooding. Disabling Laws, Enabling Acts. London: Pluto Press, 1994, pp. 10-13.
  18. Lennard Davis. The Disability Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997.
  19. Lisa Vanhala. Making Rights a Reality? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  20. Björn Hvinden. "Redistributive and Regulatory Disability Provision: Incompatibility or Synergy?" In European Yearbook of Disability Law. Edited by Gerard Quinn and Lisa Waddington. Antwerp: Intersentia, 2009, pp. 5-28.
  21. Theresia Degener. "Personal assistance services and laws: A commentary." Paper presented at International Symposium on Personal Assistance Models, World Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation International, Oakland, CA, USA, 1991.
  22. Andrew Power, Janet Lord, and Allison DeFranco. Active Citizenship and Disability. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  23. Roger Normand, and Sarah Zaidi. Human Rights at the UN. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
  24. United Nations. "International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights." United Nations Treaties Series, 1966, vol. 993, p. 3. Available online: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36c0.html (accessed on 19 August 2016).
  25. United Nations General Assembly. "Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. A/CONF.157/23." 12 July 1993. Available online: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b39ec.html (accessed on 14 March 2013).
  26. United Nations. "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." United NationsTreaties Series, 1976, vol. 999, p. 171. Available online: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20999/volume- 999-I-14668-English.pdf (accessed on 19 August 2016).
  27. United Nations General Assembly. "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination." United Nations Treaties Series, 1965, vol. 660, p. 165. Available online: http://www.refworld.org/docid/ 3ae6b3940.html (accessed on 19 August 2016).
  28. United Nations General Assembly. "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Elimination of Discrimination against Women." United Nations Treaties Series, 1979, vol. 1249, p. 13. Available online: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3970.html (accessed on 19 August 2016).
  29. Jenny Morris. "Impairment and disability: constructing an ethics of care which promotes human rights." Hypatia 16 (2001): 1-16. [CrossRef] · DOI
  30. Mairian Corker, and Sally French. Disability Discourse. Buckingham and Philadadelphia: Open University Press, 1999.
  31. Bill Hughes, and Kevin Paterson. "The Social Model of Disability and the Disappearing Body: Towards a sociology of impairment." Disability & Society 12 (1997): 325-40. [CrossRef] · DOI
  32. Tom Shakespeare. Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited. New York: Routledge, 2014.
  33. Niels Petersen. "Human Dignity, International Protection." In The Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law. Edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  34. Ronald Dworkin. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
  35. Marcia H. Rioux, Lee Ann Basser and Melinda Jones. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011, pp. 17-36.
  36. Axel Honneth. The Struggle for Recognition. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.
  37. Nick Watson. "The Dialectics of Disability: A social model for the 21st century?" In Implementing the Social Model of Disability. Edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer. Leeds: Disability Press, 2004, pp. 101-17.
  38. Berth Danermark, and Conniavitis L. Gellerstedt. "Social justice: Redistribution and recognition-A non-reductionist perspective on disability." Disability & Society 19 (2004): 339-53. [CrossRef] · DOI
  39. Ashley M. Stein. "Disability Human Rights." California Law Review 95 (2007): 75-122.
  40. Peter Beresford. "Madness, Distress, Research and a Social Model." In Implementing the Social Model of Disability. Edited by Collin Barnes and Geof Mercer. Leeds: Disability Press, 2004, pp. 208-22.
  41. Adrianne Asch, and Michelle Fine. "Nurturance, Sexuality, and Women with Disabilities." In The Disability Studies Reader. Edited by Lennard J. Davis. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 241-59.
  42. Susan Wendell. "Toward a Feminist Theory of Disability." In The Disability Studies Reader. Edited by Lennard J. Davis. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 260-78.
  43. Rosemarie Garland Thompson. "Feminist Theory, the Body, and the Disabled Figure." In The Disability Studies Reader. Edited by Lennard J. Davis. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 279-94.
  44. Ayesha Vernon. "Multiple Oppression and The Disabled People's Movement." In The Disability Reader. Edited by Tom Shakespeare. London and New York: Cassell, 1998, pp. 201-10.
  45. Anita Silvers. "Triple Difference: Disability, Race, Gender and the Politics of Recognition." In Disability, Divers-ability and Legal Change. Edited by Lee Ann B. Marks and Melinda Jones. The Hague, Bosten and London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1999, pp. 75-100.
  46. Roland Burke. Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
  47. Clifford Bob. The International Struggle for New Human Rights. Phildelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
  48. Frederic Mégret. "The Disabilities Convention." Human Rights Quarterly: A Comparative and International Journal of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Law 30 (2008): 494-516. [CrossRef] · DOI
  49. Carol C. Gould. Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  50. Christine Chinkin, and Hilary Charlesworth. The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.
  51. Mari J. Matsuda. Where Is Your Body? Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
  52. Theresia Degener. "Intersections between disability, race and gender in discrimination law." In European Union Non-Discrimination Law and Intersectionality. Edited by Dagmar Schiek and Anna Lawson. Burlington: Ashgate Publisher, 2011, pp. 29-46.
  53. Johanna E. Bond. "International intersectionality: A theoretical and pragmatic exploration of women's international human rights violations." Emory Law Journal 52 (2003): 71-186.
  54. Eric Parens, and Adrienne Asch. Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2000.
  55. Marsha Saxton. "Why members of the disability community oppose prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion." In Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights. Edited by Eric Parens and Adrienne Asch. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2000.
  56. United Nations General Assembly. "World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. WPA A/37/351/Add.1 and Add.1/Corr.1, annex." Available online: https://www.un.org/development/ desa/disabilities/resources/world-programme-of-action-concerning-disabled-persons.html (accessed on 5 March 2016).
  57. Diane Driedger. The Last Civil Rights Movement. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
  58. Theresia Degener. "Disabled Women and International Human Rights." In Women and International Human Rights Law. Edited by Kelly D. Askin and Dorean M. Koenig. Ardsley and New York: Transnational, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 267-82.
  59. Osamu Nagase. "Difference, Equality and Disabled People." Master's Thesis, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, December 1995.
  60. Colin Barnes, and Geof Mercer. The Social Model of Disability. Leeds: Disability Press, 2005.
  61. Brian Watermeyer. Disability and Social Change. Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2006.
  62. Mark Priestley. Disability and the Life Course. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  63. Emma Stone. Disability and Development. Leeds: Disability Press, 1999.
  64. Bill Albert. In or out of the Mainstream? Lessons from Research on Disability and Development Cooperation. Leeds: The Disability Press, 2006.
  65. Andrea Cornwall, and Celestine Nyamy-Musembi. "Putting the 'rights-based' approach to development into perspective." Third World Quarterly 8 (2004): 1415-37. [CrossRef] · DOI
  66. United Nations. "UN Doc. A/RES/70/I 21 October 2015. Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." Available online: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/ transformingourworld (accessed on 3 August 2016). 100. United Nations. "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families." United Nations Treaties Series, 2004, vol. 2220, p. 3. Available online: https: //treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%202220/v2220.pdf (accessed on 19 August 2016). 101. United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. "Concluding Observations." Available online: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=4& DocTypeID=5 (accessed on 3 August 2016). 102. United Nations. "Convention on the Elimination of all Form of Racial Discrimination." United Nations Treaties Series, 1965, vol. 160, p. 195. Available online: http://www.un-documents.net/icerd.htm (accessed on 19 August 2016). 103. United Nations. "Convention on the Rights of the Child." United Nations Treaties Series, 1999, vol. 1577, p. 3. Available online: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201577/v1577.pdf (accessed on 19 August 2016). 104. Wouter Vandenhole. Non-Discrimination and Equality in the View of the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies. Antwerp and Oxford: Intersentia, 2005. 105. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. "CRPD General Comment No 2 CRPD/C/GC, 22 May 2014, para. 25." Available online: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/GC.aspx (accessed on 3 August 2016). 106. Maya Sabatello. "The New Diplomacy." In Human Rights and Disability Advocacy. Edited by Maya Sabatello and Marianne Schulze. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2013. 107. Sandra Fredman. "Beyond the Dichotomy of Formal and Substantive Equality: Towards a New Definition of Equal Rights." In Temporary Special Measures: Accellerating De Facto Equality of Women under Article 4 (1) UN Convention on the Elemination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Edited by Ineke Boerefijn, Fons Coomans, Jenny Goldschmidt, Rikki Holtmaat and Ria Wolleswinkel. Antwerp: Intersentia, 2003. 108. Sandra Fredman. Human Rights Transformed. Positive Rights and Positive Duties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 109. Martha Minow. Making All the Diffference, 2nd ed. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1991. 110. Oddný M. Arnardottir. "A Future of Multimimensional Disadvantage Equality?" In The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Edited by Oddný M. Arnardottir and Gerard Quinn. Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2009. 111. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. "General Comment No 20 UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/20, 2 July 2009, para. 8." Available online: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch. aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=9&DocTypeID=11 (accessed on 3 August 2016).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Degener, T.
Affiliations
Protestant University of Applied Sciences Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe (DE)
Corresponding author
Degener, Theresia
Venue
Laws
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2016-08-25
Volume
5
Issue
3
Pages
35
ISSN
2075-471X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/laws5030035
OpenAlex
W2510574275
Cited by
367
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 48 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 7 · 2015: 1
FWCI
41.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Laws (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
no funding
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Law › Discrimination and Equality Law
  • Social Sciences › Law › Legal Rights and Human Rights
Keywords
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disability rights, human rights model of disability, social model of disability, medical model of disability, equality, discrimination, substantive equality, formal equality, disability studies, international human rights law

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review