The African Disability Protocol: Toward a Social and Human Rights Approach to Disability in the African Human Rights System

The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa marked a pivotal juncture in the shifting approaches to disability in the African human rights system. The African Disability Protocol abandoned the medical and charity approaches to disability that are dominant in many of the preexisting African human rights instruments, in favor of a social and human rights approach to disability. This chapter argues that the unique lived experience of persons with disabilities in Africa dictated the shift from viewing disability in light of the medical model of disability to perceiving it as a human rights issue. Prior to the adoption of the Protocol, African human rights instruments had failed to translate into real change in the lives of persons with disabilities, making it necessary to reevaluate the approach to disability in the African human rights system. The process of rethinking approaches to disability did not take place in a vacuum. Global trends encapsulated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had an enormous influence on this process. Using the social and human rights models of disability, the African Disability Protocol therefore takes stock of the unique African context while maintaining the gains and victories won in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.