Human Rights and Disability Advocacy

6. Children with Disabilities

CHAPTER 6 Children with Disabilities Gerison Lansdown Children with disabilities, like adults, experience widespread violation and neglect of their human rights. Despite the unique provision in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly includes disability as a ground for protection from discrimination, as well as a dedicated article introducing government obligations to ensure services for them, children with disabilities continue to face extreme forms of discrimination in most countries around the world. When children’s rights are considered, children with disabilities tend to be forgotten. When the rights of people with disabilities are considered , children with disabilities tend to be forgotten. Their rights, therefore, are at risk of being marginalized. An analysis of government reports and the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child undertaken between 2000 and 2003 found that governments consistently failed to give appropriate recognition to the violations of disabled children’s rights. Except where expressly mentioned in the CRC, in areas of education, training , health, and rehabilitation services, rights for children with disabilities were disregarded. Children with disabilities, and the challenges they face in realizing their rights, remain largely invisible. It was imperative, therefore, that the new treaty for persons with disabilities extended to children as well as adults in imposing obligations on governments to ensure that all people are afforded equal respect for their rights. This chapter discusses the positions developed on children with disabilities through the involvement of Save the Children, an international NGO with a strong record of protecting the rights of children . Although neither a DPO nor a specifically disability-focused NGO, it 98 Gerison Lansdown does have programs working on the rights of children with disabilities in a number of countries. Making a Case for a Dedicated Article for Children with Disabilities The initial draft text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities did include a specific article on children with disabilities, modeled largely on the text of Article 23 of the CRC. It was, however, soon recognized to be unsatisfactory. Its limitations lay in the fact that Article 23 was drafted with a focus on the special needs of children with disabilities. The philosophy of the new Convention, in contrast, focused strongly on a social model of disability and the need to remove the barriers impeding the realization of rights. Beyond the specific article on children with disabilities, and an article on education, the Working Group text included little recognition of their rights at all. It moreover soon became apparent that a significant number of governments were resistant to the principle of including any explicit focus on children . A range of arguments were proposed in support of this view, including the idea that additional protections for children with disabilities in the CRPD were unnecessary because of the existence of the CRC; that including children would set a precedent for a “shopping list” of special pleading (that is, a case would also be made for women, older people, indigenous people, people living in rural communities, and so on); and that such provisions might risk undermining the CRC and lead to a lowering of the protections it provides. It was evident that considerable work was needed to challenge these arguments if the final text of the CRPD was to include appropriate protection for the rights of children with disabilities. Action was needed at two levels. First, it was necessary to undertake a detailed analysis of the CRPD draft text, and determine what amendments and additions were needed for children with disabilities, in light of both the best available knowledge of their experiences of discrimination and exclusion and the impact of the CRC in serving to challenge violations of their rights. Second, a comprehensive strategy was needed to overcome the arguments being posed against the inclusion of children with disabilities in the final text of the CRPD and to lobby for the proposed amendments to be accepted. Children with Disabilities 99 Clearly, almost all the articles in the draft text could have been argued to have implications for children and could, in principle, have made reference to them. However, the approach adopted was to propose amendments, keeping four points in mind. (1) A dedicated article on children would lend explicit recognition to the fact that the treaty extended to children as well as adults with disabilities, and would also give force to the understanding that they face particular challenges in the realization of their rights. (2) Where there were rights violations experienced by...