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Article 10 [Right to Life]

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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

Article 10 of the Convention protects the right to life, reaffirming the content of the corresponding provisions of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in its ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ components, including the obligation for the State to adopt measures conducive to allowing every person to live.

Its wording follows a streamlined approach, focusing on the inherent right to life and putting special emphasis on the need for its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on equal basis with other persons.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Ramcharan (1983); Desch (1985); Ramcharan (1985).

  2. 2.

    See General Comment No. 6: Article 6 (Right to Life), adopted on 30 April 1982, para. 1; see also, General Comment No. 14: Article 6 (Nuclear Weapons and the Right to Life), adopted on 9 November 1984. The Human Rights Committee is discussing at present a new General Comment on the same subject: see http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?%20NewsID=16234&LangID=E. Accessed 31 July 2015. The aim of the Committee is to revise and expand upon its earlier general comments, taking into account State practice and the Committee’s communications on the issue. In July 2015, it held a half-day discussion; more than 40 entities (including NGOs) made a statement, and more than 100 entities submitted written contributions: see http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CCPR/Pages/WCRightToLife.aspx. Accessed 20 July 2015. A summary of the discussions on the draft text of the General Comment before the Committee (115th, 116th and 117th sessions) has been prepared by the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre): see http://ccprcentre.org/page/115th-session-in-brief/first-reading-of-the-draft-general-commenton-the-right-to-life; http://ccprcentre.org/ccprpages/draft-general-comment-on-the-right-to-life-provokes-intense-discussions-within-committee-on-issue-of-abortion; http://ccprcentre.org/ccprpages/draftgeneral-comment-on-the-right-to-life. Accessed 30 September 2016.

  3. 3.

    “Chair’s Draft Elements of a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities - December 2003” (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/Chair%27s%20draft%20text.doc). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  4. 4.

    See Article 11 of the “Bangkok Draft: Proposed Elements for a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities” (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/bangkokdraft.htm. Accessed 20 July 2015). The Bangkok Draft drew on a number of sources, primarily the “Bangkok Recommendations on the elaboration of a comprehensive and integral international convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities”, adopted by an expert group meeting of experts from the Asia-Pacific meeting held in Bangkok in June 2003 (A/AC.265/2003/CRP/10). During the Regional Workshop, it was noted that the Bangkok Draft did not exhaustively address all the issues that could be dealt with by a new convention, but the Draft could be considered as a list of issues not be dropped out from the final text.

  5. 5.

    See Bangkok Draft, cit., Article 3.

  6. 6.

    See “Compilation of proposals for a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disability” (A/AC.265/2003/CRP/13, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/a_ac265_2003_crp13.htm) and “NGO contributions to the elements of a convention” (A/AC.265/CRP.13/Add.1, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/a_ac265_2003_crp13_add1.htm). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  7. 7.

    Discussions on the draft text took place on 13 and 15 January 2004; see the Daily Summaries prepared by Landmine Survivors Network, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/wgsuma8.htm. Accessed 20 July 2015.

  8. 8.

    See, e.g., the document submitted by the European Union at the 2nd Session of the Ad Hoc Committee, “Elements for an International Convention” (A/AC.265/2003/CRP.13/Add.2), and its Proposal for the text of an Integral International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities of 18 December 2003, reproduced in “Compilation of proposals for elements of a Convention” of 15 January 2004 (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/elementscomp.doc). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  9. 9.

    See Disabled Peoples’ International, Japanese Assembly Position Paper regarding the Convention, submitted on 19 June 2003, Article 3 of the Elements of the Convention (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/wgcontrib-dpi.htm). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  10. 10.

    See World Blind Union, Manifesto for a United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, Equal Rights and Full inclusion as World Citizens (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/wgcontrib-wbu.htm). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  11. 11.

    See the submissions of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP), reproduced in “Compilation of proposals for elements of a Convention,” cit.

  12. 12.

    “Draft comprehensive and integral international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities” (A/AC.265/2004/WG/CRP.4 and Add.1, Add.2, Add.4, and Add.5). The text was accompanied by the “Summary of the discussions held regarding the issue of international cooperation to be considered by the Ad Hoc Committee” (A/AD.265/2004/WG/1, of 24 January 2004, Annex II).

  13. 13.

    Two footnotes were added to the text, stating (a) that there were different views expressed within the WG as to whether the Convention should include an article on the right to life and, if so, its content, and (b) that, during the discussion, some members of the WG suggested that the Convention should contain a separate draft article on the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in armed conflict, similar to the approach taken in Article 38(4) of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It was suggested also that such an article could deal more broadly with the protection of the rights of groups at particular risk. See A/AD.265/2004/WG/1, 24 January 2004, Annex I, footnotes 30 and 31. The text received some comments from NGOs. Those comments dealt mainly with the issue of whether the protection offered by the text, as worded, could be regarded as weaker than the wording used in other conventions (e.g., the CRC) and the rights of a nonborn disabled child: see Compilation of comments on articles of the draft text of the Working Group, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/wgdca8.htm. Accessed 20 July 2015.

  14. 14.

    See A/AC.265/2004/5 of 9 June 2004, Annex II.

  15. 15.

    See A/AC.265/2005/2 of 23 February 2005, Annex II, paras. 8–11. See also the 5th Ad Hoc Committee Daily Summaries, prepared by Rehabilitation International, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc5summary.htm. Accessed 20 July 2015.

  16. 16.

    See, e.g., the proposal by El Salvador to recognize that everyone has the right to life from conception, in Daily Summary of Discussion of 24 January 2005 (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc5sum24jan.htm). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  17. 17.

    Modifications to the draft article had been submitted by the United States of America (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc5usa.htm), accessed 20 July 2015, and by the International Disability Caucus (IDC) (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc5docs/ahc5idcaucus.doc). Accessed 20 July 2015.

  18. 18.

    See A/AC.265/2006/2, of 13 February 2006, annex II.

  19. 19.

    IDC proposed changes to Articles 10, including the addition of “and shall recognize” and “in all stages of life” so that the provision would read “States Parties reaffirm and shall recognize that every human being in all stages of life has the inherent right to life …” IDC also proposed to include an additional line, “Disability is not a justification to terminate life.” After hearing the comments in the Ad Hoc Committee, it withdrew its proposals. See the seventh Ad Hoc Committee Daily Summaries, prepared by Rehabilitation International, 17 January 2006, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc7sum17jan.htm. Accessed 20 July 2015.

  20. 20.

    See A/61/611 of 6 December 2006, para. 1.

  21. 21.

    See A/RES/61/105 of 13 December 2006. In its explanation of vote, the Marshall Islands stated that it understood the ‘right to life’ of disabled persons from the moment of conception and throughout their natural lives until death: see A/61/PV.76 of 13 December 2006, p. 4.

  22. 22.

    See CRPD/C/2/3, of 18 November 2009, Annex I, para. A.4.1.

  23. 23.

    Id., para. B.

  24. 24.

    Ibidem.

  25. 25.

    CRPD/C/ESP/CO/1, of 19 October 2011.

  26. 26.

    Ibidem, paras. 29–30.

  27. 27.

    CRPD/C/CHN/CO/1 of 15 October 2012, paras. 19–20.

  28. 28.

    Ibidem, paras. 63–64.

  29. 29.

    CRPD/C/SWE/CO/1 of 12 May 2014, paras. 29–30.

  30. 30.

    CRPD/C/7/D/3/2011 of 21 May 2012.

  31. 31.

    Ibidem, para. 7.4.

  32. 32.

    CRPD/C/11/D/8/2012 of 18 June 2014. See, in particular, para. 8.11.

  33. 33.

    See Kayess and French (2007), p. 29; Lord et al. (2010), pp. 572–573.

  34. 34.

    See ECtHR, Vo v. France, Application No. 53924/00, judgment of 8 July 2004, para. 85; A. B. C. v. Ireland, Application No. 25575/05, judgment [GC] of 16 December 2010, para. 23. See also, Bestagno (2012), p. 56.

  35. 35.

    See Javawickrama (2002), pp. 239–295, p. 256.

  36. 36.

    See Joseph et al. (2004), pp. 154–193, p. 175.

  37. 37.

    See, in particular, the cases in which the violation of Article 2 of the ECHR was found in respect of persons with disabilities: ECtHR, Jasinskis v. Latvia, Application No. 45744/08, judgment of 21 December 2010; Nencheva and Others v. Bulgaria, Application No. 48609/06, judgment of 16 June 2013; Centre for Legal Resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v. Romania, Application No. 47898/08, judgment [GC] of 17 July 2014.

Table of Cases

  • ECtHR 08.07.2004, Application No. 53924/00, Vo v France, ECHR 2004-VIII

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  • ECtHR (Grand Chamber) 16.12.2010, Application No. 25579/05, A, B, and C v Ireland, [2010] ECHR 2032

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  • ECtHR 21.12.2010, Application No. 45744/08, Jasinskis v Latvia, ECHR 2010

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  • ECtHR 18.06.2013, Application No. 48609/06, Nencheva and Others v Bulgaria, [2013] ECHR 554

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  • ECtHR (Grand Chamber) 17.07.2014, Application No. 47898/08, Centre for Legal Resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v Romania, ECHR 222 (2014)

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  1. Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (IRISS), National Research Council (CNR), Naples, Italy

    Giovanni Carlo Bruno

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  1. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Valentina Della Fina

  2. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Rachele Cera

  3. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe Palmisano

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Bruno, G.C. (2017). Article 10 [Right to Life]. In: Della Fina, V., Cera, R., Palmisano, G. (eds) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43790-3_14

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