The Routledge International Handbook of Disability Human Rights Hierarchies

Disability is defined by hierarchy. Regardless of culture or context, persons with disabilities are almost always pushed to the bottom of the social hierarchy. With the advent of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), disability human rights seemingly provided a path forward for tearing down ableist social hierarchies and ensuring that all persons with disabilities everywhere were treated equally. Despite important progress, the disability human rights project not only remains incomplete, but has often created new hierarchies among persons with disabilities themselves or across the human rights it promotes. Certain groups of persons with disabilities have gained new voices while others remain silenced and certain rights are prioritized over others depending on what states, international organizations, or advocates want rather than what those on the ground need most. This volume was inspired both by the continued need to expose human rights violations against persons with disabilities, but to also explore the nuanced role that hierarchies play in the spread, implementation, and protection of disability human rights. The enjoyment of human rights is not equal nor is the recognition of specific individuals and groups’ rights. In order to change this situation, inequalities across the disability human rights movement must be explored. Divided into five parts: Who counts as disabled? Political, social, and cultural context Which rights on top, whose rights on bottom? Pushed to the periphery in the disability rights movement Representations of disability and comprised of 34 newly-written chapters including case-studies from the Anglophone Caribbean, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, India, Israel, Kenya, Latin America, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Serbia and South Africa, and other countries, this book will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, human rights law and social policy. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables List of contributors Introduction Part I Who counts as disabled? 1 Knowing about the human rights situation of women burn survivors in Bangladesh 2 Creating a STORM: working together to fight stigma and stand up for the rights of people with learning disabilities 3 Rethinking the capacities of disabled children from the perspective of new materialism 4 A journey to realize an autistic’s rights 5 “To tremble, else break”: dismantling normative hierarchies of chronic Lyme 6 The balancing act: disability at the intersection of minority ethnicity 7 Mental health service users claiming their right to self-advocacy: the journey of Autoekprosopsi 8 Developing cultural capacity with people who have profound intellectual disabilities 9 Fighting for the rights of the non-speaking: typing words to be heard Part II Political, social, and cultural context 10 Exploring the now and the prospects of the disability rights movement in Latin America 11 On the margins while in the midst of conflict: adults with intellectual disabilities in Northern Ireland and Bosnia Herzegovina 12 Personal assistance services in Poland during the period of higher education: paving the way for independent living 13 Theories of social dominance in group-based hierarchies: reflections from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) project in Uruguay 14 Intellectual disability and sexuality in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities 15 On the hierarchy of human rights of persons with disabilities and higher education: capturing the fulfilment of the right to accessibility in Indonesia 16 Violence against women and girls with disabilities in residential institutions in Serbia 17 Disability and displacement: disability hierarchy among refugees and other displaced people 18 Hierarchy, education and persons with disabilities in Anglophone Caribbean Part III Which rights on top, whose rights on the bottom? 19 Hierarchies of impairment and digital disability rights 20 Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood 21 Including the voices of persons with intellectual disabilities in academia: participatory research, education and development in the academic world 22 Exploring intersectional and ethical feminist perspectives as a possible framework for understanding violence against women with disabilities in Africa with specific reference to forced sterilisation 23 Inclusive education through a neoliberal lens: the hierarchal differences between rural and urban China Part IV Pushed to the periphery of the disability rights movement 24 Excluded from the disability rights debate: the missed voices of people with speech impairments 25 Hierarchies of leadership within disability justice movements: the voices of individuals with intellectual disabilities are often left unheard 26 Zhenshchiny. Invalidnost’. Feminizm./Women. Disability. Feminism.: claiming ourselves against ableism 27 Two sides of the same coin: domination of the views of the educated in organisations of the blind in Ghana 28 Between the disability movement and the feminist movement: intersectional mobilizations of women with disabilities in Haiti Part V Representations of disability 29 Reflections of misperceptions 30 Pirate Island 31 Disability or vulnerability: how courts distinguish between physical and psychosocial disabilities in an employment context 32 Rooted in rights: women with disabilities in India and Kenya 33 Conversation across continents on hierarchies, human security and COVID-19 34 An invitation to contemplate: dialogues about disability hierarchies between South Africa and Scotland 35 Countering disability hierarchy with cross-disability solidarity 36 Intersecting identities Index