The Centre for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria invites papers for a conference on disability rights in Africa.

• Download the Call for Papers in PDF

About the Conference

The focus is on the effective implementation of disability rights to overcome barriers faced by children and youth with disabilities in Africa. The conference will be held at the Centre for Human Rights from 3 - 4 November 2015 in Pretoria, South Africa. The conference will coincide with the launch of the third issue of the African Disability Rights Yearbook. It is anticipated that papers presented at this conference will be reworked by authors and submitted for consideration for publication in the 2016 issue of African Disability Rights Yearbook.

Background

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) now enjoys at least 70 percent ratification by African States. However, without effective implementation, the obligations imposed on states by the CRPD would remain a distant promise to persons with disabilities in the African region.

Whilst the CRPD guarantees all persons with disabilities the same human rights as other persons, it is recognised that the cycle of disability-based disadvantages and marginalisation has differential impact depending on the specific social group with unmet human rights needs.

Part of effectively fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities, therefore, requires understanding intersectionalities.

Ultimately, it requires developing and implementing commensurate strategies for ensuring the full realisation of all rights guaranteed by the CRPD by all social groups in their commonalities as well as differences. Children and youth with disabilities share similar disability experiences with other social groups. At the same time, they also face peculiar barriers in realising human rights in both public and private settings. They are more likely to suffer multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination across a range of socioeconomic spheres of account of young age and dependency.

Disability-based disadvantages and marginalisation that are experienced as children are likely to persist when children with disabilities transition from childhood into youth. The same experience obtains when youth transition into adulthood. In its preamble and substantive provisions, the CRPD recognises the cardinal importance of ensuring that all persons with disabilities, regardless of age, enjoy the same human rights.

At the African regional level, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the African Youth Charter complement and reinforce the protections of rights of children and youth with disabilities in their substantive provisions.

Participants

The conference seeks to bring together scholars, researchers, practitioners, disability activists, advocates for disability law reform, persons with disabilities, civil society groups, lawyers, and policymakers and analysts from across Africa and beyond to address the human rights barriers faced children and youth with disabilities in the African region with a view to suggesting remedial responses.

Possible topics to consider

The intersection between children, youth, disability and human rights opens itself to a wide range of conference topics. These include but are not limited to the following topics (explored individually or in combination):

• early childhood development
• education
• vocational training and employment
• health
• youth and sexuality
• violence against children and youth with disabilities including sexual abuse and sexual violence
• youth and political and civic participation
• children, youth and the criminal justice system

Submission specifications

A committee will review abstracts that are in English, are 300-350 words in length and in MS Word format (not PDF).

Abstracts must include:
1. Author’s name
2. Affiliation
3. Qualifications
4. Email address and
5. Title of abstract.

Abstracts must be sent by email to [email protected].

Deadline (Abstracts): 17 July 2015

Authors will be notified by 31 July 2015 whether their abstract has been accepted.

Deadline (Papers): 15 September 2015

Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be required to submit their full papers by 15 September 2015.

Funding

Limited funding for travel and accommodation is available only to support authors whose abstracts have been accepted and have also submitted written papers.
Applicants seeking financial support should indicate in a separate letter, accompanying the abstract, the reason(s) for the application and the nature of support they are seeking.
Applicants will also be notified by 30 September 2015 whether their application for funding has been accepted.