By Emily Julia Kakoullis and Kelley Johnson, editors of Recognising Human Rights in Different Cultural Contexts

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006) was adopted 15 years ago and has been seen as a ‘paradigm shift’ to how people with disabilities are viewed by their societies and as having the potential to be transformative in changing their lives for the better (Kayess and French 2008; Quinn 2009; Scully 2012). To date it has been ratified by 182 states. However, for the Convention to be more than words on paper, it needs to be interpreted, translated and implemented into domestic law, policy and practice. Through our engagement with the human rights of people with disabilities within our own countries and internationally we identified the need for research focusing on how the Convention is interpreted in different cultural contexts and how those cultural contexts may influence its interpretation. 

We engaged with contributors who provided a range of perspectives to the interaction between cultural contexts and the CRPD over different ‘snapshots’ of the Convention’s journey in its domestic engagement with different states. This included the ratification process where states decide to ratify a convention. States are not required to sign or ratify treaties, but most do (Kanter 2015). Before doing so, a state may review its domestic legislation, enact new legislation, and consider how it will implement the treaty’s provisions. The perspectives also included the process of implementation of provisions in the Convention as well as the process of monitoring its implementation.

A complexity of cultural issues led to a lengthy delay in the ratification process of the CRPD for Ireland and to no ratification by the United States (Flynn, 2020; Kanter, 2020). The experiences of various states in their engagement with the Convention suggested that a failure to recognise the complexity of cultures within a state could lead to simplistic views about how the Convention is interpreted and put into practice (Kakoullis and Johnson, 2020). A need for a shift in language towards persons with disabilities as human rights holders, was identified as important in advancing the CRPD’s aims and provisions (Kakoullis and Johnson, 2020). This was not only at a state level but also within various cultural groups such as Indigenous people and views of services providers (Hickey, 2020; Birtha, 2020). There were two provisions of the Convention that received a lot of attention: Article 12 Equal recognition before the law and Article 19 Living independently and being included in the community (CRPD, 2006). The focus on Article 12 arose from how it challenges historical views of people with disabilities and the ways in which they have been subject to legal culture (Quinn, 2020; Yi, 2020). The focus on Article 19 reflected the concerns of some states regarding community living and the closure of large institutions (Brennan and Traustadóttir, 2020; Birtha, 2020). The Convention emphasises the importance of participation of people with disabilities at all stages of its implementation and monitoring. In these states’ experiences people with disabilities asserted their right to participate in a wide range of activities such as theatre, direct political action and consultation processes but also faced challenges in doing so (Smith and Stein, 2020; Kakoullis, 2020).

An important issue that was raised throughout these states’ experiences with the CRPD was that we are all situated not only in one culture but in many (Kakoullis and Johnson, 2020). For the successful engagement with, and implementation of, the CRPD, the variety and complexity of the cultures in which people with disabilities live need to be considered.

Emily Julia Kakoullis is a Lecturer in Law at the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University in the UK. She specialises in International Disability Human Rights Law focusing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Prior to a career in academia, she worked as a researcher at the Ministry of Justice in the UK and for a disability NGO in Cyprus where she engaged in advocacy work with persons with disabilities. Follow Emily on twitter at @EmilyKakoullis

Kelley Johnson holds Honorary Professorial appointments at Deakin University and University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia. She is an internationally known scholar who has been a researcher and advocate with persons with disabilities for more than 20 years in Australia and internationally.  Her research interests include deinstitutionalisation, community participation of persons with disabilities, sexuality and relationships, and rights with a particular focus on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

References

Brennan, C. & Traustadóttir, R. (2020).  Implementing article 19 of the CRPD in Nordic welfare states: The culture of welfare and the CRPD. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 257-268) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Birtha, M. (2020) Implementation of Article 19 of the CRPD in Hungary and Its Impact on the Deinstitutionalisation Process So Far. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.) Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 227-256) Singapore: Springer Nature.

CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) (2006). Adopted in 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Flynn, E. (2020). The Long Road to Ratification: Ireland and the CRPD. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 133-156) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Hickey, H. (2020). A personal reflection on Indigeneity, colonisation and the CRPD. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 79-94) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Kakoullis, E.J. (2020) A Consultative Culture? The Ratification Process for the CRPD in Cyprus. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 157-177) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 79-94) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Kanter, A, S. (2015) The development of disability rights under international law From charity to human rights. Abingdon: Routledge.

Kanter, A, S. (2020). The failure of the United States to Ratify the CRPD.  In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 97-132) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Kayess, R. & French, P. (2008). Out of darkness into light?  Introducing the convention on rights of persons with disabilities. Human Rights Law Review. 8(1), 1-34

Quinn, G (2009) Resisting the temptation of elegance.  Can the convention on rights of persons with disabilities socialise states to right behaviour?  In O. Arnadottir & G. Quinn (Eds.), The UN convention on rights of persons with disabilities. European and Scandinavian perspectives. (pp.215-256). Leiden and Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff.

Quinn, G. (2020).  Legal culture and the CRPD. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 19-44) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Rice, J. (2020). Anthropology, disability and the CRPD. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 45-62) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Scully, J. L. (2012). The convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and cultural understandings of disability. In Anderson, J. & Philips, J. (Eds.), Disability and universal human rights: Legal, ethical, and conceptual implications of the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Utrecht: Utrecht University Netherlands Institute of Human Rights.

Smith, M.S. and Stein, M.A. Article 30 of the CRPD as a Vehicle for Social Transformation: Harnessing the CRPD’s Potential for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 269-294) Singapore: Springer Nature.

Yi, H. (2020). The ‘Transposition’ of Article 12 of the CRPD in China and Its Potential Impact on Chinese Legal Capacity Law and Culture. In Kakoullis, E.J. & Johnson, K. (Eds.)  Recognising human rights in different cultural contexts The United Nations convention on rights of persons with disabilities. (pp. 203-225) Singapore: Springer Nature.