Core concepts of human rights and inclusion of vulnerable groups in the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

Abstract

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 and entered into force on May 3rd, 2008. The UN CRPD is the first legally binding international instrument with comprehensive protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, and sets out the legal obligations on States to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities worldwide. EquiFrame, a novel policy analysis framework, was used to evaluate the UN CRPD in relation to its commitment to 21 predefined core concepts of human rights and inclusion of 12 Vulnerable Groups. While a number of core concepts and vulnerable groups were found to be absent in the UN CRPD, and other core concepts mentioned only in a specified capacity, the overall quality rating for the UN CRPD when interpreted within the parameters of EquiFrame's summary indices was found to be high, placing it amongst the best policy instruments assessed using the EquiFrame methodology so far. Suggestions for how shortcomings can be addressed are made.