Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Rune J. Simeonsson, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8185, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8185, 919-962-2512, rjsimeon@email.unc.edu

In developed as well as developing countries, children with disabilities are vulnerable to deprivation of their rights in the form of denial of treatment, neglect, exploitation, discrimination and lack of access to services and supports. Viewed within the framework of universal standards, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the ICF-CY complement each other, defining the rights of children and providing evidence of barriers to those rights, respectively. In this context, “..children's rights generate obligations and responsibilities that must be honoured” Landsdown, 2000). The ICF-CY can document the child's limitations and environmental barriers providing evidence for the rights to protection, care and access. This paper describes a project to map ICF-CY codes to major UNCRC articles defining the child's integrity as a person and inherent right to life and survival, to an identity, to be the first to receive services, to a family environment, to protection and assistance in institutional care, and to protection from exploitation. Article 23- access for children with disabilities- (codes e 570,575,580,585); article 28 –participation in education (codes 810-839); and articles 5, 9 and 20- family life (codes b760; e 310, 315) are representative UNCRC articles and corresponding ICF-CY codes. Review and validation of the derived list of articles and corresponding codes was provided by an international panel. Use of the ICF-CY can provide the evidence to make children's rights explicit, constituting a universal reference for the development of national policies, legislation and practices pertaining to the rights of children with disabilities.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Define the rights of children with disabilities within context of UN Convention on Rights of the Child
• Identify key codes in the ICF-CY that can be used to document children's rights to services
• Apply the use of the ICF-CY in practice and policy to insure rights of children with disabilities

Keywords: Human Rights, Children With Special Needs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered