Disability and Rights: The possibilities and limits of rights discourse under neoliberalism

While fundamental rights were enumerated in the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), rights instruments have proliferated since the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic (ICCPR), Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) entered into force in 1976. Disability-specific rights and their legal representation have been notably late to the conversation, with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities appearing only in 2006. This and other legislative initiatives and social movements have seen some notable wins for disabled communities, with improvements to access and inclusion in both the built and social environments. Despite a panoply of rights existing at national, regional, international and transnational levels, intractable disadvantage remains. In terms of fundamental rights, the right to life is consistently jeopardised through the lack of equal access to healthcare1 . In terms of civil and political rights, disabled people still remain largely excluded from political…