The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) signalled a paradigm shift in the international regime of human rights, promising ‘to become a transformative international legal instrument’ (Lewis, 2010: 98) for persons with disabilities (PwDs). As the UN's first legally enforceable disability rights instrument, the CRPD has the potential to transform disability policies and programmes in Africa. This is especially the case because the Convention is underpinned by the social model of disability, which directs attention to the responsibility of States and societies rather than individual PwDs for upholding disability rights (Corsi, 2018; Kanter, 2014). As Ibhawoh observes in Chapter 1, it also opens up the possibility of a holistic approach to disability rights, because the rights enshrined in the CRPD are universal, indivisible, and interdependent. However, there remain significant barriers to the implementation of the CRPD in many African countries. Where advancements have been made in areas such as advocacy and policymaking, the implementation of the Convention has focused on welfare programmes rather than economic, civil, and political rights per se (Ibhawoh, Chapter 1). With these issues in mind, this conclusion offers a synthesis of the contributors’ findings, organized on the basis of the rights and duties enshrined in the Convention, as well as reflections on potential ways forward to achieve disability rights in Africa.

Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The contributors offer valuable assessments of the potential for achieving the CRPD's rights provisions in Africa. This section synthesizes the highlights, taking the rights Articles in the order in which they appear in the Convention. Beginning with Articles 12 (equal recognition before the law) and 13 (access to justice), Chapter 2 points to the importance of equitable access to the justice system for persons with intellectual disabilities (IDs) in South Africa. Accessing justice is especially important for persons with IDs, because they face higher risks of stigma, discrimination, and abuse, including sexual exploitation. The problem, however, is that the onus of proving legal capacity falls on victims themselves rather than the court. For this reason, supported decision-making – in which decisions are supported by third-party agents who are not disabled – is centrally important to accessing justice for persons with IDs in South Africa.