Canada’s responses to disability and global development

Abstract

Canada has taken some positive action in addressing disability in its foreign and development policies, including its long-standing commitments to disabled peoples’ organisations globally, and significant engagement in the drafting process of and subsequent ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). But, ultimately, the lack of a rights-based disability framework in Canada’s global development policies, and the implications of an approach primarily directed to disability prevention and rehabilitation, have combined to make Canada unable to effectively realise its commitments to the CRPD Article 32 on international cooperation.