THE SOCIAL RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND THE CEN-TRALITY OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

This article focuses on the protection of these rights under the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It further demonstrates that the applicability of the Convention also
implies the requirement to promote all fundamental rights and freedoms, namely the realization and
all necessary adaptations, the elimination of any barriers that prevent the full exercise of rights and
fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities. The enjoyment and exercise of social rights is the
guarantee of the dignified existence of the human being, adapting and assuring the vital needs for
subsistence in society in conditions of equal treatment with other people. Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights are regarded as fundamental rights under conditions of equal normative dignity with
civil and political rights. The content of economic, social and cultural rights recognized by the same
Convention seeks to ensure the effectiveness of practical rights to the detriment of merely theoretical
or illusory rights. Assuring several rights considered fundamental to the dignified social existence,
respecting the inherent dignity of the person with disability as a human being endowed with their
particularities and vital needs. Finally, the article reveals a jurisprudential approach that States cannot
justify, per se, for financial or budgetary reasons, constraints on the enjoyment and exercise of
fundamental rights that have an indispensable function in ensuring the proper existence and vital
livelihood. on an equal basis with others. Consequently, it is a conditio qua sine whereby all persons
with disabilities are guaranteed the recognition, enjoyment and exercise of human rights and
fundamental freedoms