The limits of recognition: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, intersectional discrimination and Article 6

Abstract

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been undeniably groundbreaking in advancing the legal rights of disabled people on international agendas. In particular, Article 6 – titled “Women with disabilities” – has also helped to ensure that the legal protection of disabled women was firmly situated and recognised within that agenda. However, via a socio-legal approach, this article argues that overall the CRPD is limited in its contribution, recognition, and approach to intersectional discrimination or intersectionality regarding disabled women or Article 6. Moreover, not only is the CRPD’s contribution to intersectional approaches limited, but it also appears exclusionary in some places (towards some groups of disabled women). To argue this, this article highlights normative treaty limitations, limitations to interpretive expansion by the CRPD Committee, and domestic implementation failures. It firstly examines the substantive articles of the CRPD, including the content of Article 6 itself, and the subsequent impact on conceptualisations of associated legal concepts, including legal capacity and integrity. It then assesses the impact of the CRPD Committee, and finally examines the effect of the CRPD in international legal contexts, with specific focus on case studies from the United Kingdom and South Africa. Through these last two sections, the article also shows that the CRPD’s contribution to intersectional discrimination is largely dependent on certain factors, such as time and domestic political context.