Disability, EU law and the CRPD: A New Dawn?

Abstract

This paper will examine the definition of disability in anti-discrimination employment law in Europe. This paper reviews some of the approaches to defining disability both within the European Union and by the European Union. The underlying theme of this paper is to assess what if any impact the European Union’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will have on those definitions. The CRPD is a significant development for persons with disabilities, described by some commentators as “ground breaking.”2 It is ground breaking for a number of reasons, but most significantly for ensuring that it embodies the social model of disability.3 The main focus of this paper is to assess whether the various definitions of disability perpetuate the medical/individual model of disability or support the social model of disability and to determine the most appropriate approach to the definition within the EU.