Legislative Work with a Disability Perspective

A Contribution from Human Rights

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand whether the disability perspective is being applied in the current process of legislative construction in our country. It also seeks to understand the national and international regulations that would allow us to analyze the feasibility of incorporating a disability perspective as one more tool in the application of Human Rights in everyday legislative work and in the subsequent development of government public policies, taking into account the social model of disability. Currently, various academic and social works driven by universities, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and sectors affected by disability have provided an understanding of the scope and individual and social problems that arise from the lack of disability-inclusive legislation and comprehensive public policies. These advancements in disability matters have highlighted that existing legislation in Argentina needs to be thoroughly reviewed and analyzed. For years, this legislation was sectorally driven as a positive action for a group in need of state assistance, rather than from a disability perspective as a Human Right. In our country there is a specialization of laws for this sector, which indicates that legislation is not approached with a disability perspective. Instead, it is legislated through the focus on specific issues, generating positive actions for the sector without fully including them as the new paradigm suggests. This results in an institutional framework of low quality in this area.