A New Era in Human Rights Protection in the European Community: The Implications the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the European Community

22 Pages Posted: 4 Nov 2007 Last revised: 17 Nov 2013

See all articles by Lisa Waddington

Lisa Waddington

Maastricht University; University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law

Date Written: April 2007

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is ground breaking in many respects: it is the first human rights Convention of the new century; it is not merely a non-discrimination convention, but also provides for a wide range of classical and substantive rights; and, from a European perspective, it is the first human rights convention which the European Community (EC) negotiated and signed, and it will be the first such convention which the Community will ratify. Consequently, the CRPD will take on a completely new legal status within EC law, and will have to be respected in its totality, and not as a mere add on to be referred to in passing in Community instruments.

The Community competence to negotiate, sign and ultimately ratify the Convention, alongside the Member States, resulted primarily from changes introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty. Under Article 13 EC the Community acquired powers to take action to combat disability discrimination. In addition EC competences exist in a number of other areas where a disability dimension exists, although no other specific mention of disability can be found in the main body of the EU or EC Treaties.

As a consequence of this direct involvement with the Convention, the EC will, like other State Parties, be bound by its obligations. The goal of this paper is to give some first impressions as to what this implies for the EC and, specifically, what legal obligations ratification of the Convention will impose on the Community.

Keywords: disability, United Nations, European Community, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disability discrimination

JEL Classification: J73

Suggested Citation

Waddington, Lisa, A New Era in Human Rights Protection in the European Community: The Implications the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the European Community (April 2007). Maastricht Faculty of Law Working Paper No. 2007-4, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1026581 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1026581

Lisa Waddington (Contact Author)

Maastricht University ( email )

PO Box 616
Maastricht, 6200 MD
Netherlands

University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law

Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

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