Addressing Stigma in the Community: A Rights-Based Approach to Community-Building

Abstract Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms the rights of persons with physical and mental disabilities to be treated as equal, and deserving of state support to realize their full human potential. This focus on a ‘positive’ right to support (as opposed to the ‘negative’ right to non-interference) has established an important set of expectations around societal responses to people living with dementia(PLWD). This presentation examines the contributions of a rights-based approach to build community with and for PLWD. Data is drawn from Participatory Action Research (PAR) and bi-weekly online action groups with N=10 PLWD in urban and rural British Columbia. Two thematic targets were identified. First, it is important to bring together PLWD in ways that create a sense of solidarity and inclusion. Second, fostering community requires addressing the stigma and discrimination which often leave PLWD feeling isolated, excluded, and marginalized.

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Preventing violence, exploitation and abuse of persons with mental disabilities: Exploring the monitoring implications of Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.ijlp.2017.05.012 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 27-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Judy Laing

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Mental Disabilities ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

United Nations Convention ◽

The United Nations

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Legislating personhood: realising the right to support in exercising legal capacity

International Journal of Law in Context ◽

10.1017/s1744552313000384 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 81-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Eilionoir Flynn ◽

Anna Arstein-Kerslake

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Political Philosophy ◽

United Nations ◽

People With Disabilities ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Legal Capacity ◽

Mental Disabilities ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

United Nations Convention ◽

The Right

AbstractThis paper examines the regulation of ‘personhood’ through the granting or denying of legal capacity. It explores the development of the concept of personhood through the lens of moral and political philosophy. It highlights the problem of upholding cognition as a prerequisite for personhood or the granting of legal capacity because it results in the exclusion of people with cognitive disabilities (intellectual, psycho-social, mental disabilities, and others). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) challenges this notion by guaranteeing respect for the right to legal capacity for people with disabilities on an equal basis with others and in all areas of life (Article 12). The paper uses the CRPD to argue for a conception of personhood that is divorced from cognition and a corresponding recognition of legal capacity as a universal attribute that all persons possess. Finally, a support model for the exercise of legal capacity is proposed as a possible alternative to the existing models of substituted decision-making that deny legal capacity and impose outside decision-makers.

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The STEPS Project: Participatory Action Research to Reduce Falls in Public Places Among Seniors and Persons with Disabilities

Can J Public Health ◽

10.1007/bf03403876 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 88 (2) ◽

pp. 129-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Elaine M. Gallagher ◽

Vicky J. Scott

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Participatory Action Research ◽

Participatory Action ◽

Public Places ◽

Persons With Disabilities

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From Substitute to Supported Decision-Making: Participatory Action Research on the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities

Journal of Disability Policy Studies ◽

10.1177/10442073211055478 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104420732110554

Author(s):

Benoît Eyraud ◽

Iuliia Taran

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Human Rights ◽

Action Research ◽

Participatory Action Research ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Participatory Action ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

Care And Support ◽

Health And Social Care ◽

The Relationship

In this article, we present findings from a participatory action-research program in France on the exercise of human rights and supported and substitute decision-making, inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”). Bringing together persons with the lived experience of disability, academics, and health and social care and support professionals, the project used the method of “experience-based construction of public problem” to transform experience into collective expertise. This enabled the exploration of support that people in vulnerable situations, whose capacity to exercise their human rights has weakened, need to make decisions in their lives and participate meaningfully in public debate. The relationship between the awareness of rights and exercise of rights is discussed. We argue for the need to balance out the positions of different contributors in participatory action research, in a reasoned manner, by recognizing the scientific and citizen-based participation of all partners.

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