Navigating through the ‘rules’ of civil society

Abstract

This chapter argues that while the progress of disability rights has been slow, disability rights have moved from near non-existence to a less peripheral position in the human rights scene in Singapore. Tracing the historical development of disability rights, it covers the post-war provision for disability and key milestones such as the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons, the explicit disability rights captured in the 1988 Advisory Council on the Disabled, and the ratification of the 2006 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2013. The advocacy and provision of disability rights have been shaped by interactions between government and civil society, and also by changes in the approach adopted by the international community across history. In preparation for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the Singapore government made various changes to the Voluntary Sterilisation Act (VSA) that had been implemented in the 1970s.