Monitoring Human Rights: A Holistic Approach

Abstract

This chapter outlines what is involved in disability rights monitoring. It argues that this approach is crucial to advance the human rights of people with disabilities. The chapter describes the monitoring system that has been developed by Disability Rights Promotion International (D. R. P. I) an international project dedicated to monitoring disability rights worldwide. It discusses how shifting understandings of disability have provided the fundamental basis for the emergence and development of disability rights monitoring models. In the context of the recently adopted United Nation (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the chapter concludes with remarks about the potential uses and impacts of rights monitoring approaches. Human rights monitoring is the activity that enables us to evaluate whether progress in securing rights for people with disabilities has taken place. Media monitoring constitutes a further important dimension of assessment in the D. R. P. I. holistic approach. Keywords: Disability Rights Promotion International (D.R.P.I.); holistic approach; human rights monitoring; media monitoring; United Nation (UN) convention