The human rights of persons with intellectual disability and self-advocacy movement

Abstract

As many as five hundred million people, almost ten percent of the worlds population, are disabled. What does it mean? It means that they cease to be valued as equal to other people. It means that they are widely disregarded as both capable of, and needing love, affection, humour, and friendship. The cumulative impact is to deny disabled people respect for their dignity, respect for their human rights and fundamental freedoms and their individuality. The process does not only dehumanise persons with disability (including persons with intellectual disability) but also it dehumanises society. There is no civilised, humanity society, which subjects disabled people to such violation of human rights. For a society to be fully inclusive, government policy, attitudes, the legal framework, and many other sectors in society must adopt an approach of equal access to all within the community. This goes especially for persons with intellectual disability who are generally more devalued than those who have physical or sensory impairments because of the difficulties they face in learning new skills and because of the gaps in their cognitive development.