Course date: 7 - 11 May 2012 The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria,  hosted a one-week intensive short course on Disability Rights in an African context from 7 to 11 May 2012. Venue: Graduate Centre, University of Pretoria Main Campus

About the course

This course aims to achieve the following:

• Provide an overview and explore a critical understanding of international, regional and domestic law on disability rights relevant to Africa, and develop an understanding of the limits of the law;
• Promote awareness of disability as a human rights issue and as part of human diversity;
• Encourage critical responses to the existing law by developing alternative conceptions and theories, with reference to comparative legal norms and jurisprudence;
• Develop skills and competence to advocate for legal and policy change and improved implementation of disability rights; and
• Develop skills to undertake comparative research on disability rights in Africa.

Themes of the programme

Themes of the programme are the following:

• The face of disablement
• Historical approaches to disability and the law on disability: the global and the African contexts
• Social construction of disability
• Development of disability as a human rights issue at the global level
• Development of disability as a human rights issue at the African level (regional and sub-regional)
• Development of disability as a human rights issue at the domestic level in Africa, in comparative perspective

Course Materials

• Dr Charles Ngwena, University of the Free State
  
  • Disability from a Comparative Perspective: Comparing and contrasting South Africa, USA and Canada
  • Social Construction of Disability
  • Part 1: Deconstructing the definition of 'disability' under the Employment Equity Act: Legal Deconstruction
  • Part 2: Deconstructing the definition of 'disability' under the Employment Equity Act: Legal Deconstruction