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A Consultative Culture? The Ratification Process for the CRPD in Cyprus

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Recognising Human Rights in Different Cultural Contexts

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Abstract

Emily Julia Kakoullis discusses the journey towards ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006) in Cyprus and considers how the Cypriot context struggled to embrace the consultative and participatory culture that is found in the CRPD. She shows that where States create formal structures for consultation, these may be inadequate to truly embed the spirit of the Disability Movement’s mantra ‘Nothing About Us Without Us!’, if the governmental will is not there. Kakoullis reveals that despite the challenges during Cyprus’s ratification process, there was some change regarding the practice of consultation with disabled people’s organisations (DPOs).

[T]he main reason for which the [Cypriot] Government at the time moved to sign the Convention and the Optional Protocol, was the recognition that we need to transition to a new more upgraded stage regarding the enshrinement of the rights of persons with disabilities … the then Government … [coupled by] the intervention and the demands of the movement of the disabled, recognised that [the Convention] was a step forwards in the field of the enshrinement of the rights of persons with disabilities

(Interview with the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These were representatives from the ministries of (1) Labour and Social Insurance, (2) Finance, (3) Education and Culture, (4) Health, and (5) the Planning Bureau (L. 127(I)/2000).

  2. 2.

    The questionnaire asked the recipients to assess the extent to which the legislative and/or administrative framework they worked within “related … to matters of persons with disabilities” (Interview with the Office of the Ombudsperson); the extent to which the framework complied with the CRPD’s provisions; and their “opinion[s] about the implications of the application of the Convention”, such as to legislative amendments (Interview with the DSIPD).

  3. 3.

    Although the circular was sent to governmental bodies, it was not sent to the State’s ‘social partners’, including the Confederation; nor was it sent to any other disability stakeholders or DPOs.

  4. 4.

    Cyprus has a Mixed Legal System and its relationship to international law ‘sits’ closer to the Monist doctrine.

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  1. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Emily Julia Kakoullis

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Correspondence to Emily Julia Kakoullis .

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  1. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Emily Julia Kakoullis

  2. Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, Australia

    Kelley Johnson

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Kakoullis, E.J. (2020). A Consultative Culture? The Ratification Process for the CRPD in Cyprus. In: Kakoullis, E.J., Johnson, K. (eds) Recognising Human Rights in Different Cultural Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0786-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0786-1_8

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