Abstract
People who experience a form of disability are identified by the CRPD as those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments that in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others (Article 1). Disabled persons are about 15 % of the world’s population, and this percentage is growing mainly due to the aging process, which comports an increase in chronic health conditions. Other factors include car accidents, abuse of drugs, humanitarian crises (including natural disasters and health pandemics). Of those, about 80 % live in low-income countries. Many of these persons have serious health conditions and face barriers in accessing health and related services, such as habilitation, rehabilitation, assistive technology, assistance and support services and community-based rehabilitation (CBR). For most of them, access to adequate and affordable habilitation and rehabilitation constitutes a precondition for integration or reintegration into societies and inclusion in the communities in which they live. In fact, without (re)habilitation, many people with disabilities would be isolated from society, their community, and even their family. While (re)habilitation is often thought to include only medical aspects, the reality is that it goes far beyond the health field and embraces a wide range of issues.
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Notes
- 1.
See http://www.who.int/disabilities/en/. Accessed 31 August 2015.
- 2.
The term CBR was introduced by the WHO in 1981 with reference to vulnerable groups that experience gross violations of human rights in the context of armed conflicts (which determined their condition of disability). CBR involves measures taken at the community level to use and build on the resources of the community, including the impaired, disabled, and handicapped persons themselves, their families, and their community as a whole. See WHO Expert Committee on Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation (1981), p. 9.
- 3.
Becker (2012), p. 18.
- 4.
See http://www.who.int/topics/rehabilitation/en/. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- 5.
WHO Expert Committee on Medical Rehabilitation, Second Report, Technical Report Series 419, (Geneva, 1969), p. 6.
- 6.
Elliott and Leung (2004), p. 319.
- 7.
Olaogun et al. (2009), p. 24.
- 8.
ILO Recommendation R099 adopted on 22 June 1955. The Recommendation defined the term ‘vocational rehabilitation’ as part of the continuous and coordinated process of rehabilitation that involves the provision of those vocational services, e.g., vocational guidance, vocational training, and selective placement, designed to enable a disabled person to secure and retain suitable employment, and the term disabled person as ‘an individual whose prospects of securing and retaining suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of physical or mental impairment’ (Article 1).
- 9.
Convention No. 159 was adopted in Geneva on 20 June 1983 and entered into force on 20 June 1985.
- 10.
Article 10, para. 3, of the ICCPR states that “The penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation.” Article 14, para. 3, affirms that “In the case of juvenile persons, the procedure shall be such as will take account of their age and the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation.”
- 11.
Shelton (2005), p. 275.
- 12.
Buchanan (2014), p. 105.
- 13.
Montero (2007), p. 32.
- 14.
On the aspects related to the enjoyment of the right to education of autistic people, Cera (2015), p. 79.
- 15.
On this issue, Kayess and French (2008), p. 30.
- 16.
See http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc8.htm. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- 17.
On the rehabilitation model, Palacios and Walls (2006), p. 124.
- 18.
See Article 3 [General Principles] in this Commentary.
- 19.
The Assistive Technology Act of 2004 defines assistive devices as “any item, piece of equipment, or system, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that is commonly used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” The term assistive technology refers to assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them.
- 20.
For instance, the World Health Assembly adopted on 25 May 2005 Resolution WHA58.23 on Disability, including Prevention, Management and Rehabilitation, whereas it called on the WHO “to provide assistance to Member States in developing policies on disability and rehabilitation.”
- 21.
http://www.who.int/disabilities/cbr/guidelines/en/. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- 22.
http://www.who.int/disabilities/actionplan/en/. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- 23.
The report was produced jointly by the WHO and the World Bank in 2011 and is available at http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf?ua=1. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- 24.
The Action Plan was endorsed by the Sixty-Sixth World Health Assembly (WHA66.9).
- 25.
See para. 40 of the Action Plan.
- 26.
Outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals for persons with disabilities: the way forward, a disability-inclusive development agenda towards 2015 and beyond (A/RES/68/3). http://www.un.org/disabilities/defult.asp?id=1590. Accessed 25 September 2016.
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Pavone, I.R. (2017). Article 26 [Habilitation and Rehabilitation]. In: Della Fina, V., Cera, R., Palmisano, G. (eds) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43790-3_30
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