Mental disability, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, and the sustainable development goals

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) arrive at an interesting time in disabilities law. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was passed by the General Assembly (GA) in December 2006, and came into effect less than two years later. The ethos of the CRPD has notable consistencies with the SDGs, sharing objectives relating to the attainment of substantive equality for all. The intersections are at their most visible in provisions relating to economic, social and cultural rights: both contain provisions promoting rights to health, education, gender equality, employment, access to justice, and the development of inclusive societies. This chapter discusses that the CRPD is widely understood as having introduced a 'new paradigm' for disabilities law, 17 applying both to its articulation of social and economic rights and, at least as significantly, to its articulation of civil and political rights. That new paradigm is reflected in the synergies noted above between the CRPD and the SDGs, and is based on much firmer expectations of equality, non-discrimination and community integration than previously. It is unclear how far that new approach is permeating into broader human rights discourse, even at the level of other United Nations bodies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)