The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities " What Role for Philanthropy?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – what role for Philanthropy? is a paper presented by Professor Gerard Quinn, Director, Centre for Disability Law & Policy, National University of Ireland, Galway at the 2010 International Human Rights Funders Group conference held at San Francisco, California.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is anchored on the view that the person with the disability is not the problem. Remember what Theresia Degener says – traditional disability law and policy ‘problematizes the person’. The problem resides in how third parties (including the State) reacts to disability. This is reflected in the definition of disability in Article 1 of the Convention: disability does not exist in the abstract. It is a function of how impairment is compounded by arbitrary barriers placed in front of people.