Only within the past few years has the international community begun to understand that violations of the rights of people with disabilities are violations of human rights. The right of people with disabilities worldwide to be protected by international human rights instruments has now, finally, been recognized by the international community. In 2006, the United Nations adopted the first treaty on the rights of people with disabilities. Countries throughout the world also have been developing their own disability laws. Although these domestic laws differ in their approach, scope, and content, they, like the new UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, share a commitment to advance the human rights protections of people with disabilities.
THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES On December 13, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the first Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This landmark treaty, which represents nearly two decades of advocacy efforts by disability organizations worldwide, guarantees all children and adults with disabilities the right to equality, dignity, and liberty, and ensures the full and equal enjoyment of their rights to equal access, access to justice, and to equal participation in public and cultural life. This Convention also requires state parties to provide inclusive education, community living, and quality healthcare to people with disabilities. The Convention also affirms the right of all children to live with their parents, and the right of all people with disabilities to an adequate standard of living and social protection. To date, over 85 countries have signed the Convention. As soon as it is signed by 101 countries, it will be binding on the 650 or more million people who constitute the world’s population of people with disabilities.
International and Comparative Disability Law Resources – This website was developed by Professor Arlene Kanter and College of Law Research Librarian, Wendy Scott, to assist researchers in the study of international and comparative disability laws, and to promote the international work of the College of Law’s Disability Law and Policy Program.
Perlin, M. L., Kanter, A., Treuthart, M. P., Szeli, E., & Gledhill, K. (Eds.). (2006).
International human rights and comparative mental disability law: Cases and materials. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
The issue of the human rights of people with mental disabilities has been ignored for decades by the international agencies vested with the protection of human rights on a global scale. This is the first and only casebook that considers the intersection between international human rights law and comparative mental disability law; it provides a systematic investigation of all of the relevant issues. Topics covered include a comparison of civil and common law systems, an overview of international human rights law, an overview of regional human rights tribunals, an overview of U.S. constitutional mental disability law, mental disability law in an international human rights context, comparative mental disability law (civil and common, scholarly articles and case law), the use of institutional psychiatry as a means of suppressing political dissension, the “universal factors” in this area of law, and the globalization of disability law.
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND COMMERCE, Volume 34, Spring 2007. This special issue of the Journal, edited by Professor Arlene Kanter, includes articles on the new UN Convention by renowned scholars and policy makers from around the world, including Ambassador Don MacKay, who chaired the UN Ad Hoc Committee and is credited with the successful resolution of the Convention negotiation and drafting process.
Rosenthal, E., Kanter, A. et al. (2003, September 9).
Foreign policy and disability: Legislative strategies and civil rights protections to ensure inclusion of people with disabilities. Washington, DC: National Council on Disability. Also available in HTML at
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/
2003/foreign03.htm.
"In 1996, NCD issued a report on foreign policy and disability that found that U.S. programs abroad did not conform to the letter or spirit of U.S. disability rights law. On the basis of recent legal developments, this paper demonstrates that current U.S. disability discrimination laws may now be found to apply to U.S. foreign programs operating abroad. NCD recommends that Congress instruct the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to apply the protections of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA to U.S. operations abroad" (pp. 2-3).
Ahern, L., & Rosenthal, E., with Bauer, E., Calik, N., Kanter, A., Layikel, Ş., Okain, R., & Sundram, C. (2005).
Behind closed doors: Human rights abuses in the psychiatric facilities, orphanages and rehabilitation centers of Turkey. Washington, DC: Mental Disability Rights International.
Behind Closed Doors describes the findings of a two-year investigation in Turkey by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) and exposes the human rights abuses perpetrated against children and adults with mental disabilities. Locked away and out of public view, people with psychiatric disorders as well as people with intellectual disabilities, such as mental retardation, are subjected to treatment practices that are tantamount to torture. Inhuman and degrading conditions of confinement are widespread throughout the Turkish mental health system. This report documents Turkey’s violations of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture (ECPT), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other internationally accepted human rights and disability rights standards.
Journal of Disability Law - The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is pleased to announce the addition of the Journal of Disability Law to the Legal Scholarship Network. The Journal is sponsored by the College of Law Disability Law and Policy (DLP) Program of Syracuse University’s Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies (CHPLDS) and is edited by Arlene S. Kanter, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, Professor of Law; Director, Disability Law and Policy Program, Syracuse University, College of Law; Co-Director, Syracuse University Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies; and Michael A. Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Law; Director, Disability Rights Clinic, Syracuse University, College of Law. The Journal of Disability Law welcomes abstracts of papers, forthcoming articles, and recently-published articles and reviews which address issues of domestic, comparative, and international disability law and policy and disability studies, including issues related to mental health and mental disability law and policy. The Journal addresses legal issues, legislation, policy and a critical examination of disability as part of diversity in the US and in other societies throughout the world. To browse all abstracts and papers in this journal, go to:
http://www.ssrn.com/link/disability-law.html http://www.ssrn.com/update/lsn/lsn_disability-law.html To subscribe, go to:
http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=disability-law SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY LAW Kanter, A. (2005). The right of students with disabilities to equal participation in study abroad programs. In S. Sygall & M. Scheib (Eds.),
Rights and responsibilities: a guide to national and international disability related laws for international exchange organizations and participants (2nd ed.) (pp. 41-50). Eugene, OR: Mobility International USA. Available at:
http://www.miusa.org/publications/freeresources/
RR%20book.pdf.
Kanter, A. (2005, September). The globalization of disability law. In P. Blanck (Ed.),
Disability rights [The International Library of Essays on Rights] (pp. 489-518). Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Kanter, A. (2003, Summer). The globalization of disability rights law.
Syracuse Journal of International Law & Commerce, 30(2), 241-269. Available at:
http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/sjilc30&id=247
&collection=guest.
Kanter, A. (2003). The presumption against extraterritoriality as applied to disability discrimination laws: Where does it leave students with disabilities studying abroad? In M. Kelman (Ed.), Symposium: Developments in Disability Rights [Feature issue].
Stanford Law and Policy Review, 14(2), 291-320.
Kanter, A. S., Chisam, R. B., & Nugent, C. (2001, July-August). The right to asylum and need for legal representation of people with mental disabilities in immigration proceedings.
Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter, 25(4), 511-516.
Kanter, A., & Dadey, K. (2000, Winter). The right to asylum for people with disabilities.
Temple Law Review, 73(4), 1117-1158.
Rosenthal, E., & Kanter, A. (2002). The right to community integration for people with disabilities under United States and international law. In S. Yee & M. Breslin (Eds.),
Disability rights law and policy: International and national perspectives (pp. 309-368). Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers.