of what it means to be human and how to empower people to take charge of their own lives through a richer conception of legal capacity (article 12). Many human rights treaties seek to foster equality of opportunities by opening up spaces that had previously been closed to the protected group. The UN CRPD goes much deeper by highlighting the ‘civil death’ of persons with disabilities and their invisibility in the law. Uncloaking this hidden voice is key to enabling people with disabilities to emerge from the control of others and take charge of their own lives. But there is little point in having this voice unless one can have real choices in the world. That is why the right to live independently and to be included in the community are of such importance (article 19). These can be things that are taken for granted by most people. However, they are particular powerful in the context of human rights and disability as these basic choices have been systematically denied to persons with disabilities in the past. Change is inherently difficult since many countries find it ‘normal’ to deny voice and legal capacity to persons with disabilities and have problems moving away from long-standing patterns of institutionalisation and segregation. NHRIs, therefore, have a particularly important role to play in promoting and advocating reforms that restore voice and choice to persons with disabilities. The Convention also innovates by emphasising how an identity like disability interacts with other identities, such as gender and age (articles 6 and 7). This first attempt to articulate ‘intersectionality’ in international law helps highlight the layered nature of human identity – that a person is not just disabled but also a woman or older person – and how multiple and accumulating forms of discrimination and disadvantage can arise through these intersecting identities. This focus on intersectionality is a major advance on existing international law. Many NHRIs already undertake work with a clear understanding of intersectionality, employing broad themes that sweep beyond narrow identities. This innovation in the UN CRPD gives added impetus to that work, which assists persons with disabilities and has positive effects for others, especially older persons. The Convention also creatively melds civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights, allowing the latter to play a much more direct role in realising the autonomy and freedom of persons with disabilities. It is obvious that social and economic programs are needed to roll back the legacy of the past; for example, de-institutionalisation and the creation of more accessible workplaces. It is equally obvious that guarantees to formal rights on their own are not enough. People need access to the material supports that will enable them take advantage of their newly-won freedoms, such as supports that enable them to take up employment or live in the community. This co-mingling of traditional obligations to avoid negative treatment with obligations to ‘progressively achieve’ socio-economic rights for persons with disabilities is a highly innovative aspect of the UN CRPD. Indeed, it perhaps restores us to the original vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948. This co-mingling was due, in part, to the fact that traditional social programs were seen as part of the problem, in that they were designed simply to ‘cushion’ persons with disabilities who were otherwise excluded from the mainstream. That traditional approach is now turned on its head, with the result that socio-economic rights are seen in the Convention as key enablers that allow persons with disabilities to live their own lives and to participate actively in their communities. Of course, this has not made the traditional tension between obligations of ‘immediate effect’ and obligations of ‘progressive achievement’ go away. But it has given fresh life to economic and social rights as key enablers of real freedom for persons with disabilities. A related innovation in the Convention is the positive obligation to provide ‘reasonable accommodation’ For persons with disabilities. Rather uniquely, a failure to achieve this obligation amounts to discrimination under the UN CRPD (article 5(3)). Although not intended to bring about systemic change, the ‘reasonable accommodation’ obligation seeks to tailor general obligations to the very specific circumstances of individuals and applies across all the rights in the Convention. How well this obligation functions is of interest not only to persons with disabilities but also to others, such as older people, who could perhaps benefit from a similar innovation.13 13 C. Jolls, ‘Accommodation Mandates’ in Stanford Law Review, Vol. 53, 2000, pp. 223-306. Introduction for users | 5