Social Exclusion is a Violation of Human Rights
The New UN Convention Stresses Diversity without Ignoring Social Problems
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Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt.
(Copyright: Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte)
The following article summarises an essay by Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, Director of the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsches Institut fuer Menschenrechte, Berlin). One message to be learnt from the convention is: A societal practice that excludes persons with disabilities from public life is a human rights violation!
His essay on the innovation potential of the UN Disability Rights Convention ("Zum Innovationspotenzial der UN-Behindertenkonvention" (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte, Essay No. 5, Berlin, December 2006)), can be downloaded from the Institute’s website free of charge at www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de - Article
E-mail: German Institute for Human Rights
His essay on the innovation potential of the UN Disability Rights Convention ("Zum Innovationspotenzial der UN-Behindertenkonvention" (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte, Essay No. 5, Berlin, December 2006)), can be downloaded from the Institute’s website free of charge at www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de - Article
E-mail: German Institute for Human Rights
The Innovation Potential Of The New UN Disability Rights Convention
The New UN Human Righs Convention
=> The new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities frees persons with disabilities from being forced to consider themselves as "deficient" and also frees all people from a wrong concept of health fixation, which marginalises all people who do not correspond to the pattern of fitness, youthfulness, and permanent ability.
Disability as a Concept
Empowerment and Social Inclusion to Replace Experiences of Structural Injustice
Monitoring of the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Theory of Human Rights Conventions
The third aspect is being highlighted in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as many obstacles towards the participation of persons with disabilities in society are due to physical or mental barriers.
A human rights convention contains
=> A societal practice that excludes persons with disabilities from public life is a human rights violation!
Go back: CBM: Respect for Disability Rights Crucial to Reduce Poverty
Read more: What Are CBM's Activities On 30. March?
- turns away from a disability policy, which focuses primarily on care and a compensation of assumed deficits. Instead, the convention stresses diversity in society and culture and, at the same time, refers to
- social exclusion and discrimination of persons with disabilities, which are seen as the true deficits or disability and have to be assessed as human rights abuses.
=> The new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities frees persons with disabilities from being forced to consider themselves as "deficient" and also frees all people from a wrong concept of health fixation, which marginalises all people who do not correspond to the pattern of fitness, youthfulness, and permanent ability.
Disability as a Concept
- Paradigm shift: disability is valued as a part of social diversity and a source of potential cultural enrichment instead of being seen as a deficit. On these grounds, sign language is seen as a cultural achievement of persons with hearing impairments.
- The social problems of persons with disabilities: The societal practice of exclusion and obstruction of persons with disabilities is understood as a "disability"— in contrast to an "impairment".
- "Disability"— social and societal exclusion can be addressed as a structural injustice.
Empowerment and Social Inclusion to Replace Experiences of Structural Injustice
- Empowerment of persons with disabilities is emphasised: persons with disabilities turn against stigmatisation, discrimination, and exclusion from society. They do not passively suffer a fate.
- The injustice of social exclusion can only be overcome by social inclusion on the basis of liberality and equal rights of persons with disabilities, which includes equal access to job markets, cultural participation, and codetermination on equal terms.
Monitoring of the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- States commit themselves to report, at least every 4 years, about the implementation of the convention and to submit the report to an independent UN commission for assessment.
- A novelty is the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention into national legislation and jurisdiction; for this, institutions in UN member countries are being established in collaboration with the responsible UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Theory of Human Rights Conventions
- The state should pay attention to human rights and align state acts accordingly.
- The state should provide protection from rights abuses performed by third parties.
- The state should take measures to ensure that all people can make use of their rights.
The third aspect is being highlighted in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as many obstacles towards the participation of persons with disabilities in society are due to physical or mental barriers.
A human rights convention contains
- Individual defensive rights against state, society, and community, but is also opposed to
- Unintended exclusion from communities or society (Hannah Arendt: The human right to a legal community).
=> A societal practice that excludes persons with disabilities from public life is a human rights violation!
Go back: CBM: Respect for Disability Rights Crucial to Reduce Poverty
Read more: What Are CBM's Activities On 30. March?
