scholarly journals Assessment of individuals with disabilities in Latin America: a comparative study of the legislation

10.3823/2630 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosylane Nascimento das Mercês Rocha ◽  
Francisco Fernandes Cortes ◽  
Rui Nunes
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
United Nations ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individuals With Disabilities ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Definition Of

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the legislation relating to individuals with disabilities in Latin America, focusing on the definition of individuals with disabilities and how they are certified as such.  Method: In this investigation, the legal provisions in force in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela were retrieved via the internet. It was then sought to identify the following: the specificity of guarantees of human rights and fundamental freedoms for individuals with disabilities, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the definition of disability and individuals with disability; what criteria are applied, i.e. whether a specific table, the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is used; and whether the disability is assessed in a biomedical or biopsychosocial manner, i.e. whether this is done solely by a doctor or is a multiprofessional assessment, and whether, if done by a doctor, there is any support through psychological or social worker evaluation when necessary. Results: With the exception of Cuba, for which no specific legislation was found, the legislation dealing with individuals with disabilities in the other Latin American countries investigated in this study has been constructed in line with the main provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela, disabilities are assessed and certified through tables or the ICD or ICF. Biopsychosocial assessments are made by doctors in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Uruguay and Venezuela. In Brazil, Chile and Ecuador, social assessments are made by other professionals to support evaluations made by doctors. In Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti and Panama, the assessment is biomedical. In relation to the other countries, it was not possible to understand, from the legislation, how disabilities are assessed. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the laws in the countries examined here all have the purpose of guaranteeing fundamental rights and freedoms for individual with disabilities through public policies. Their aim is to enable equality of opportunity in the fields of healthcare, rehabilitation, education, work, leisure, culture and justice, in accordance with the principles recommended in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Out of all the countries investigated, social assessments by professionals of other specialties to support medical evaluations are only required in three of them; tables or the ICD or ICF are used in assessing and certifying disabilities in eleven of them; the biopsychosocial assessment is made by doctors in six of them; and the assessment is biomedical in another five countries. In the remainder, the assessment criteria were not made clear through the legislation examined.    

scholarly journals An end to psychiatric detention? Implications of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2014 ◽  
Vol 204 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan D. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

SummaryThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a welcome articulation of the rights of the disabled. However, as its definition of disability appears to include mental illness, the UK appears to violate it by linking mental illness with detention. Clarity and, possibly, change are needed.

scholarly journals THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE PROMOTION OF ELITE DISABILITY SPORT: A WORLDWIDE ANALYSIS

2018 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Jaime Prieto ◽  
Juan L. Paramio-Salcines
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Disability Sport ◽  
Sports Events ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

Little attention has been focused on the analysis of the interrelation between disability and elite disability sport from the human rights perspective as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) demands of those countries that ratified this global regulation. More than a decade since its promulgation in December 2006, the United Nations itself and a plethora of authors recognises that disability in general and disability sport by extension has not yet been seen as a human rights issue in many countries, principally in developing countries. This paper is divided into four main parts. First, academic literature in relation to disability, human rights policy and sport at elite level is explored. Second, it examines the active role of the International Paralympic Committee, regarded as a major advocate for the rights of the sport promotion of athletes with disabilities, to implement the Convention by the organisation of sports events for Paralympic athletes worldwide at all levels of the sport development continuum. Third, it explains the methods and data collection followed in the study and the following section presents results of the analysis. Finally, it draws an international scenario that might be valuable in informing academics, institutions and professionals to promote elite disability sport from the human rights perspective.

scholarly journals DeCovidation = Deinstitutionalization. Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Rasa Genienė
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

The global coronovirus (Covid-19) pandemic has been revealed what about half of the world’s deaths are recorded in large institutions of the elderly and people with disabilities, and these are later thought to be incentives for states to take active deinstitutionalisation efforts. In order for deinstitutionalisation actions to respond to its ideological origins, which lie in the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in the necessary legal instruments and in clarifying that Member States are responsible. The article reveals how the deinstitutionalisation processes that have already started are implemented and evaluated in Central and Eastern Europe and discusses their problems. Content analysis was used to investigate the Soviet regime, leading to the implementation of official and alternative (shadow) reports on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Art.43 Consent to Be Bound

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bantekas Ilias
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Multilateral Treaties

This chapter examines Article 43 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The formal act by which a state consents to be bound by a treaty is expressed through ratification. The various legal terms used to denote such consent (ie acceptance, approval, or accession) produce the same functional and legal effect in the international sphere. Their differences lie chiefly in the states’ internal/constitutional sphere. Article 43 CRPD departs from equivalent provisions in other treaties under the UN aegis, as well as other multilateral treaties, at least in phrasing. Other multilateral treaties specifically distinguish between the two classical types of consent: a) that which is open to signatory states, namely ratification, acceptance and approval and; b) that which is open to non-signatories, namely accession. Article 43 does not make this distinction explicit. Its wording seems to suggest that acceptance and approval are excluded from its ambit, but given that both of these produce exactly the same legal effects as ratification, the distinction is practically meaningless.

Art.37 Cooperation between States Parties and the Committee

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gledhill Kris
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Ordinary Meaning ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Committee oversees the implementation of the CRPD by its states parties through an assessment of periodic reports and by hearing disputes submitted under the CRPD’s Optional Protocol. Article 37 CRPD contains two distinct obligations: that owed by the signatory states of cooperation with the Committee (article 37(1)), and that of the Committee to bear in mind the need to augment domestic capacities to give effect to the CRPD (article 37(2)). An understanding of the import of this turns on the ‘ordinary meaning’ of the words used ‘in their context’ and bearing in mind their ‘object and purpose’. Accordingly, this chapter examines various relevant features and looks at the practice of the Committee to date in order to suggest the meaning of these obligations.

Art.20 Personal Mobility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kovudhikulrungsri Lalin ◽  
Hendriks Aart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Personal Mobility ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
European Court ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines Article 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Personal mobility is a prerequisite for inclusion in a society. According to the European Court of Human Rights, to be mobile and to have access to transport, housing, cultural activities, and leisure is a precondition for the ‘right to establish and develop relations with other human beings’, ‘in professional or business contexts as in others’. The CRPD does not establish new rights for persons with disabilities. It is merely thought to identify specific actions that states and others must take to ensure the effectiveness and inclusiveness of all human rights and to protect against discrimination on the basis of disability. However, the fact that there is no equivalent of the right to personal mobility in any other human rights treaty makes it particularly interesting to examine the genesis and meaning of this provision.

Art.10 Right to Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nizar Smitha
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines Article 10 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which affirms every human being’s right to life. It first explores the efforts made by the drafters of the CRPD to frame the right to life of all human beings. It further examines the wider meaning of the right to life and its application, and traces the interpretation given by the CRPD Committee in its concluding observations. In order to understand the micro-level application of the right, the chapter examines the interpretation and its application by domestic and regional courts. Finally, it explores the individual complaints made under the optional protocol and the consequent interpretation provided. This is done to define the jurisprudence surrounding the right to life and the required measures to strengthen and facilitate its wider application as envisaged under the Convention.

Art.4 General Obligations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Broderick Andrea
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter examines Article 4 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The article sets out the general obligations under the CRPD with a view to encouraging national legal and policy reform and guiding domestic implementation of the Convention. The content of Article 4 is of cross-cutting application, since it contains overarching principles that permeate the text of the Convention as a whole. The obligations contained in the article thus seek to contextualize the interpretation of the substantive provisions of the Convention. Article 4 enumerates both general obligations and specific obligations. This distinguishes it from similar provisions in other human rights treaties, which are more in the nature of general obligations of compliance.

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