A Government-funded study for the United Nations has called for a new UN treaty to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities.
The study, which was carried out by a legal research team directed by Prof Gerard Quinn at NUI, Galway, was described as a "benchmark" study by the Minister of State for Overseas Development Assistance and Human Rights, Mr Tom Kitt.
It was commissioned by the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, and formally presented in Geneva late last year.
The study argues a new UN treaty for people with disabilities would focus attention on disability, and tailor general human rights norms to meet particular circumstances of persons with disabilities. State agencies would be clearer on their precise obligations. An estimated 600 million people, or 10 per cent of the world's population, have a disability, according to the study. More than four fifths of them live in developing countries. Only 2 per cent of children with disability in the developing world receive any education or rehabilitation.
"The link between disability and poverty and social exclusion is direct and strong throughout the world", says Prof Quinn, director of NUI Galway's law school, and co-author of the study with Ms Theresia Degener. "However, a dramatic shift in perspective has taken place over the last two decades from an approach motivated by charity towards the disabled, to one based on rights," he noted.
"The core problem in the field of disability is the relative invisibility of persons with disabilities, both in society and under the existing international human rights instruments," he added. "What people with disabilities aspire to most is to have access to the same rights - and civic responsibilities - as all other persons."
There are currently six UN conventions relating to people with disabilities. These include treatment of prisoners, the rights of the child, discrimination against women, and treatment of racial and minority groups. However, the authors of the report claim that the adoption of a thematic treaty on the rights of persons with disability "would underpin, rather than undermine, the web of existing human rights treaties".
The authors also recommend that the UN Commission on Human Rights should "actively consider" appointing a rapporteur on the human rights of people with disabilities; and they say national human rights institutions should form a forum or working group on disability and human rights.