Reservations to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Peer Engagement and the Value of a Clear Object and Purpose

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ("CRPD"), while seemingly culturally uniform across the globe, has raised several thorny issues, predominantly of a domestic nature. It constituted a mini revolution for international human rights architecture' but is subject to many reservations. That mini revolution is manifest in the remarkable elimination of the medical approach to disability by clearly establishing disability within its social context.?
Moreover, by elevating disability-related rights to human rights, it introduced key principles in disability rights' implementation by states, including, but not limited to, equality, universal design, and accessibility. States accepted the necessary financial cost associated with the realization of such rights. Also, States that do not typically become parties to human rights treaties, such as the Gulf States, quickly acceded to the CRPD. The CRPD is a battleground for competing ideas, theories, and stereotypes. At the same time, however, it gives rise to resource implications and forces States to think vigorously about how they can best spread the financial burden that the CRPD imposes between the public and the private purse (eg, tax benefits in exchange for businesses hiring persons with disabilities or for adapting the workplace to universal design requirements). It is within this context that reservations to the CRPD should be assessed.