The human rights of children with disabilities: How can medical professionals better fulfil rather than breach them?

In this paper published in Development Medicine and Child Neurology in April 2023, AdsFoundation Director Dr Zoe Picton-Howell explains how medical professionals can too often breach the human rights of children with disabilities, often through misunderstandings about the law and the children’s lives.

The paper explores some key rights vital to the health and well-being of children with disabilities and shows how the guidance known as General Comments published by the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child can assist medical professionals in ensuring the rights of children with disabilities are fulfilled.

The paper also outlines the human rights model of disability and explains how adopting this model in day-to-day practice, as required by international law, will empower medical professionals to help fulfil the human rights of children with disabilities.

Suggestions are also made as to how training in human rights for medical professionals might be facilitated.

The human rights of children with disabilities: How can medical professionals better fulfil rather than breach them?

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