The Rights of People with Disabilities in Disasters & Public Health Emergencies
The rights of people with disabilities do not disappear in times of crisis. While disasters, emergencies, and other crisis scenarios often require sacrifices, the rights and lives of disabled people do not need to be one of them.
For information on your rights in a disaster, please reference both sections below, which outline the rights of people with disabilities on a national and global level.
Rights of People with Disabilities in Disasters: Global
While specific laws and enforcement vary by country, there are some international protections for people with disabilities.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
From the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) page:
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol (A/RES/61/106) was adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. There were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 ratification of the Convention. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN Convention on its opening day. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty [...]