Widening the Scope of Non-refoulement? The CRPD and the Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Displacement

The international non-refoulement jurisprudence concerning persons with disabilities currently risks falling into the trap of the outdated medical model of disability. Particularly, the European Court of Human Rights and also the UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities display an often-exclusive focus on a person’s medical needs. This results in a denial of the human rights-based approach and thus of the promise of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”) to one of its most vulnerable constituencies, persons with disabilities facing expulsion proceedings. The author argues that the CRPD Committee may be ready for a new approach to refoulement cases, drawing on existing case law from other specialist UN treaty bodies and applying the human rights-based approach.