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The module introduces students to International and European disability law and policy, focusing on the significant changes resulted from the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The course equips the students with the necessary theoretical and conceptual background on disability, and focuses on the perspectives and challenges purported by the social model of disability as opposed to the medical model. It examines the development of international standards on disability and analyses the UNCRPD in light of the decisions of the UN Committee on the rights of people with disabilities. Attention will be paid to the national monitoring system envisaged by the UNCRPD and to its implementation in selected States and in the European Union. The module covers the Council of Europe’s action in the field of disability, and discusses relevant decisions of the European Court on Human Rights. It also analyses the EU disability law and policy, paying attention to the role of the Court of Justice in endorsing the rights of persons with disabilities. Since the UNCRPD is the first human rights treaty that the EU has concluded, the module will critically assess the interaction between the Convention and EU legislation, as well as the actual implementation of the UNCRPD at the EU level.
Any aspect of this module may be changed in any given academic year, subject to the discretion of the module lecturer.
Module Content:
What is Disability?
The models of disability
The social model and its critique
The development of International Standards on Disability
The UNCRPD
Rationale and Structure
Art. 33 CRPD and the national monitoring system in a nutshell: challenges and perspectives
The Optional Protocol
Accessibility in the UNCRPD
Equality and Non-Discrimination in the UNCRPD
Legal Capacity in the UNCRPD
The role of the Council of Europe in promoting the Rights of persons with disabilities
The Council of Europe Disability Policies
Disability in the European Social Charter
The European Convention on Human Rights and the Rights of persons with Disabilities
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the EU legal framework
EU disability policies
Directive 2000/78 and related case law of the Court of Justice
The European Accessibility Act
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