The importance of human rights

The purpose of the above video is to introduce why human rights have been important to humans in general, and to disabled people in particular.

The video includes Rosemary Kayess and Tom Shakespeare, both of whom were involved in the development and drafting of the UNCRPD. As they explain, a human rights approach specifies what every human being needs, and lays out the obligations of the state to protect and enable access to these basic needs. As we will explore more throughout the week, people with disabilities are one group of people who have historically not always had their needs equally protected or enabled by the state. As such, Eric Emerson suggests that disability is fundamentally a human rights issue.

While people with disabilities may experience some disadvantages as a result of their impairments or health conditions, the main disadvantage occurs due to different kinds of discrimination. In the next steps, we explore what discrimination is, and what it looks like in the lives of people with disabilities.