Volume: Volume 21 - 2017

Article type: Refereed article

Author/s: Kwadwo, Appiagyei-Atua

The article uses four different types of rights that are identified in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) to test the extent to which the Draft Protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (AfDP) matches that of the UN standard. The conclusion after the comparative analysis is that the content of the AfDP relates closely to that of the CRPD. However, at the same time, the article identifies in the AfDP some innovative clauses as well as new 'rights' that are lacking in the CRPD. The opposite is also true with respect to some other clauses found in the CRPD which are not featured in the AfDP. This article comes up with other findings, such as how the CRPD mixes up civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights to create 'new rights.'  In addition, it observes that all the rights recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) are captured in both instruments '“ unlike the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This finding affirms the overwhelming importance that the CRPD and the AfDP attach to the economic, social and cultural rights model which places a duty (to fulfil) on States to operationalise the enjoyment of rights for marginalised entities in general and persons with disability in particular.

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