Part I The concepts: The human rights framing of disability
The human rights framing of disability and, specifically, the rights set out in the Convention are relevant
to an extremely broad section of the world’s population. As the WHO World Report on Disability (2011)
noted:
Persons with disabilities are diverse and heterogeneous, while stereotypical views of disability emphasise
wheelchair users and a few other ‘classic’ groups such as blind people and deaf people. Disability
encompasses the child born with a congenital condition such as cerebral palsy or the young soldier who
loses his leg to a land mine, or the middle aged woman with severe arthritis, or the older person with
dementia, among many others.33
Celebrations in Kathmandu marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December 2016.
Photo by the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal
33
Page 7; available at www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/.
Chapter 1: The human rights re-framing of disability | 15