How will the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (and its Optional Protocol) affect the rights of people with disabilities?

Abstract

Act XXIV of 2016 was one of the major amendments which supported the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability into Maltese law. In reality, over the last five years, Maltese disability law has been undergoing major changes which envisage a more inclusive society towards persons with disability. Firstly, this work attempts to delineate the obligations of the State and how legislation has changed in order to ensure that the responsibilities towards the well-being and inclusivity of persons with disability are clear-cut and distinct. Evidently, the rights introduced by the aforementioned Act are one of the most direct effects resulting from the ratification of this Convention. Therefore, this dissertation shall attempt to dissect the content of these rights in order to better understand the intentions of the legislator as well as to ensure the fidelity towards this Convention. Furthermore, it is understandable that not every legal aspect of Malta’s current disability law is perfectly coherent with the scope of the Convention. With this notion in mind, there also shall be certain recommendations intended to possibly ameliorate the applicability of the Convention as well as these amendments.