Out of Darkness into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and an associated Optional Protocol. The formulation of the CRPD has been hailed as a great landmark in the struggle to reframe the needs and concerns of persons with disability in terms of human rights. The CRPD is regarded as having finally empowered the world's largest minority to claim their rights, and to participate in international and national affairs on an equal basis with others who have achieved specific treaty recognition and protection. This essay interrogates the intellectual antecedents of the CRPD and its continuity and discontinuity with 25 years of international law and its struggles with disability and human rights. It then explores the text of the CRPD, critically examining its potential contribution to the realisation of the rights of persons with disability.