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A report about the rights of people with disabilities around the world

OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (OHCHR)
August 2015

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This is an easy read version of the 'Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities' about social protection. "Social protection helps governments make sure everyone can live well. Social protection is things that give everyone the same chances in life. For example: having enough food, basic healthcare, going to school, and money to help pay for the things you need if you cannot work or earn enough. The report says what this means for people with disabilities"

Note: the full report is available below as a related record

The economic lives of people with disabilities in Vietnam

PALMER, M
GROCE, N
MONT, D
NGUYEN, O H
MITRA, S
July 2015

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Through a series of focus group discussions conducted in northern and central Vietnam, this study gives voice to the lived economic experience of families with disabilities and how
they manage the economic challenges associated with disability. The dynamic of low and unstable income combined with on-going health care and other disability-related costs
gives rise to a range of coping mechanisms (borrowing, reducing and foregoing expenditures, drawing upon savings and substituting labour) that helps to maintain living standards
in the short-run yet threatens the longer-term welfare of both the individual with disability and their household. Current social protection programs were reported as not accessible to
all and while addressing some immediate economic costs of disability, do not successfully meet current needs nor accommodate wider barriers to availing benefits.

Applied research concerning inclusion of persons with disabilities in systems of social protection - social protection policy analysis, Peru

VASQUEZ, Alberto
GOTELLI, Veronica
BLANCHET, Karl
WALSHAM, Matthew
May 2015

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The effect of mainstream social protection policies in Peru on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in Peruvian society are explored in the both economic and social context.  The policy analysis was conducted to understand past successes and failures and to plan for future policy implementation and the research took place alongside a similar analysis in Tanzania.  A policy research guideline was developed allowing cross-country comparison between the two studies. A literature review was carried out to identify social protection policies and programmes in Peru. In addition, 22 interviews were held with key stakeholders, including organisations of persons with disabilities, to explore more in-depth information on the impact of major policies. Social protection policies, health, education and employment issues for people with disabilities are covered. Associated qualitative and quantitative reports are available.

Disability and social protection forum

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR EVIDENCE IN DISABILITY (ICED)
April 2015

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This webpage presents useful information and materials from a forum held at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine about disability and social protection. Session one set the scene on disability and social protection, and session two focused on the priorities and opportunities to build on the evidence on social protection and disability. Related summaries, audiovisuals and powerpoints are provided from the Forum

Disability and Social Protection Discussion Forum

London, UK

26 March 2015

Rethinking the work capability assessment

BAUMBERG, Ben
et al
March 2015

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This report outlines the key research findings about the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria of the Employment Support Allowance (ESA), a means tested benefit for those who are unable to find work in Britain. It presents the state of the UK’s existing assessment and then describes how seven key countries systematically assess incapacity, and the lessons these countries provide for reforming the WCA in the UK

ESCAP Guide on Disability Indicators for the Incheon Strategy

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DIVISION
December 2014

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The Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific provides the Asian and Pacific region, and the world, with the first set of regionally agreed disability-inclusive development goals. The Incheon Strategy goals cover a range of development areas from poverty reduction and employment to political participation, accessibility, social protection, education, gender equality, disaster risk reduction, data collection, CRPD ratification and international cooperation.

To ensure that the 10 goals are successfully met, the Strategy identifies 27 targets as well as 62 related indicators for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the 10 goals. These targets and indicators are essential for developing practical implementation strategies, ensuring success and identifying areas where significant challenges remain. Goal 8 of the Incheon Strategy accords particular priority to data collection, calling for improvement of the reliability and comparability of disability data across countries in the region. Member States, in target 8B, have specifically committed to establishing a baseline with reliable statistics by the midpoint of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities in 2017, as a source of tracking progress towards the achievement of the Incheon Goals.

The ESCAP Guide on Disability Indicators for the Incheon Strategy aims to guide data collection and generation by ESCAP member States through providing them with relevant methodologies and tools to construct and use the 62 indicators of the Incheon Strategy, in order to monitor the achievement of the 10 disability-inclusive development goals.

Inheritance, poverty, and disability

GROCE, Nora Ellen
LONDON, Jillian
STEIN, Michael Ashley
2014

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Inheritance is a significant means of transferring wealth from one generation to the next, and therefore increasingly attracts attention from researchers and pol- icy-makers working on intergenerational and multidimensional poverty. How- ever, until now disabled persons have been overlooked in these discussions. This oversight is particularly unfortunate because, as a group, the estimated one bil- lion people with disabilities (some 15% of the world’s population) are among the poorest and most marginalized of the global population. Over the past dec- ade, a small but growing literature has examined the recursive connections between poverty and disability throughout the developing world. In this paper, we argue that disabled individuals are routinely denied inheritance rights in many low-income and middle-income countries, and that this is a significant and largely unrecognized contributor to their indigence. The denial of inheritance is both a social justice issue and a practice that can no longer be overlooked if disabled persons are to be brought into the development mainstream.

The disabled beggar : a literature review

GROCE, Nora
LOEB, Marie
MURRAY, Barbara
September 2014

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Beggars with disabilities are among the poorest and most disadvantaged in society. Yet they are virtually invisible in the policy agenda of countries around the world, and are often overlooked in programme and advocacy efforts to improve opportunities for people with disabilities in general. This literature review originated as part of an exploratory study of beggars with disabilities in Ethiopia, published by the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre in collaboration with the ILO in 2013 based on fieldwork undertaken by Professor Groce in Addis Abba. It has been updated and published separately as a contribution to debates on the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities, on poverty reduction and social protection

Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch, Working Paper No. 1

Writing the rights : highlighting the international standards on the rights of victims of armed violence

ČEVRA, Nerina
HUNTER, Jane
March 2014

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This report is an analysis of international and regional legal and policy provisions on the rights of victims of armed violence. This study highlights different themes related to the rights of victims of armed violence and notes the evolving trends or emerging (or existent) norms evident in international law and policy relating to that particular theme. It is aimed at scholars, advocates, activists and government representatives working to further the rights of victims of armed violence as an international policy agenda. The report concludes that much more needs to be done by states to ensure that the rights of all victims of armed violence are protected and that assistance is provided in a way that addresses victims’ particular circumstances and specific needs

Disability inclusion in social protection

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
January 2014

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A literature review to identify examples of integration of disability issues within cash transfer and broader social protection programmes, strategies and policies, in low-income contexts mainly focusing on countries in Africa and South-East Asia. The UNCRPD is increasingly considered to be the key principle behind disability-inclusive social protection policies, strategies and practices.  Specific country examples are provided

GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1069

Nonparametric estimation of a compensating variation : the cost of disability

HANCOCK, Ruth
MORCIANO, Marcello
PUDNEY, Stephen
December 2013

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This paper proposes a nonparametric matching approach to estimation of implicit costs based on the compensating variation (CV) principle. The paper aims to introduce the matching approach, compare its properties with those of the conventional indirect parametric approach, and demonstrate its application in an important policy area. The authors apply the method to estimate the additional personal costs experienced by disabled older people in Great Britain, finding that those costs are substantial, averaging in the range £48-61 a week, compared with the mean level of state disability benefit (£28) or total public support (£47) received. Estimated costs rise strongly with the severity of disability. The authors compare the nonparametric approach with the standard parametric method, finding that the latter tends to generate large overestimates unless conditions are ideal, and recommend the nonparametric approach

ISER Working Paper Series, No. 2013-26

Benefits stigma in Britain

BAUMBERG, Ben
et al
November 2012

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This report presents the results of a research study assessing the impact of stigma and other social influences on applying for benefits in the UK

Assessing the impact of European governments’ austerity plans on the rights of people with disabilities : European report

HAUBEN, Harald
et al
October 2012

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This report "set out to examine the evidence at both European and national level of the effect of the economic crisis, and its consequences in terms of austerity measures, on the rights and status of people with disabilities. In particular, it focused on the impact on the delivery of social services and income supports and allowances particularly aimed at people with disabilities"

Americans with disabilities : 2010

BRAULT, Matthew W
July 2012

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This report presents estimates of disability status and type in the United States (US) representative of the civilian non-institutionalized population. The data used in this report were collected from May through August 2010 and categorizes types of disabilities into communicative, physical, and mental domains according to a set of criteria as described in the report
P70-131

Mainstreaming ageing into the post-2015 process

BEALES, Sylvia
March 2012

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This policy brief presents information supporting an accountable, rights-based and age-inclusive post-2015 policy framework that supports people across their life course, and across social, economic and environmental domains. It oulines the core issues, areas for action and related recommendations

Forgotten Europeans forgotten rights : the human rights of persons placed in institutions

PARKER, Camilla
et al
2012

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This report is the first of a series of OHCHR publications intended to inform and encourage debate on the issues affecting children, persons with disabilities and older persons in institutions. The study highlights that many children and people with disabilities and older persons continue to be placed in long-stay residential institutional care in countries across Europe, often for life. The report draws attention to this situation and addresses the responsibility of governments to develop community-based alternatives to institutional care. It identifies the issues covered by the relevant existing standards and highlights areas that require further consideration and discussion

Rocking the cradle : ensuring the rights of parents with disabilities and their children

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY
2012

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"The report analyzes how U.S. disability law and policy apply to parents with disabilities in the child welfare and family law systems, and the disparate treatment of parents with disabilities and their children. Examination of the impediments prospective parents with disabilities encounter when accessing assisted reproductive technologies or adopting provides further examples of the need for comprehensive protection of these rights"

Effective poverty reduction and empowering women : a win-win situation?|CCTs in Latin America

HERZOG, Karolin
October 2011

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"Building on the conceptual issues surrounding the discussion of the feminisation of anti-poverty programmes and its translation into CCTs (Conditional cash transfer programmes), this paper therefore calls for more deliberately gender-sensitive programme designs to address women's capabilities for income generation and for the inclusion of men in order to transform gender relations and create more equality"
Discussion papers on social protection, Issue No 12

A national survey of public attitudes towards disability

NATIONAL DISABILITY AUTHORITY
October 2011

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This report presents the results from surveys carried out in 2001, 2006 and 2011 on public attitudes towards disability in Ireland. Public attitudes to people with disabilities can be a key facilitator or a serious barrier to their inclusion and participation in society, highlighting the importance of promoting and enabling active participation of people with disabilities in the mainstream community and access to mainstream services. The 2011 survey results indicate the importance of ensuring that Irish society and all its stakeholders recognise the need to address the negative attitudes that exist to achieve inclusion of people with disabilities
Disability Research Series 14

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