Disability Rights, Gender, and Development: A Resource Tool for Action

This publication is developed by Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Director of International Human Rights Policy at the Wellesley Centers for Women, in collaboration with the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs/United Nations and the United Nations Population Fund. As part of its global strategy to promote the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in development activities and to mainstream disability in all aspects of its work, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SCRPD/DESA) and the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) at Wellesley College have developed a unique compilation of resource materials on innovative approaches to promote the human rights of persons with disabilities, especially women and children in inclusive people-centered development.Disability Rights, Gender, and Development: A Resource Tool for Action provides valuable insights on the theory and practice of human rights-based approaches to development and contributes to this body of knowledge by designing innovative approaches to the implementation of the CPRD in gender and child sensitive development activities. Building on existing experience in other human rights conventions, with a focus on the linkages among the CRPD, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the resource manual is designed to provide an intersectional analysis of the different treaties and build capacity among all stake holders to use the normative frameworks of the different conventions within a holistic framework of interrelated rights. The first draft of these materials was developed for a pilot training program by the author in August 2008 for DESA staff members on the “Human Rights Based Approaches to Development in the Context of Disability Rights”. The three overarching goals of the resource manual are to:

 

  • Increase the knowledge base to support and guide global efforts on inclusive development in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • Strengthen the knowledge base to respond to the growing needs to support the implementation of the Convention through a human rights-based approach to development.
  • Incorporate the gender perspective in ANY disability action: law/policy making, and programming to promote the rights of persons with disabilities.

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