3 - The CRPD Committee, Ableism and Hierarchies of Impairment at Work

Summary

This chapter will introduce the CRPD Committee and analyse the extent to which the Committee has identified the presence of hierarchies at work. It will first introduce the CRPD Committee, then Sections II–IV will analyse its jurisprudence. Section II will analyse the Concluding Observations (COs) on States Parties to the CRPD to illustrate how the CRPD Committee accepts that there is a hierarchy of impairments in law and practice and that is having a tangible impact upon how the right to work is exercised by different impairment groups. While the CRPD Committee’s critique of the hierarchy of impairments at work is positive, there are substantial inconsistencies across COs. The CRPD Committee aims to have ability equality mainstreamed, and disability apartheid abolished; to advance this agenda, the CRPD Committee should ensure consistency across COs to empower those on the right side of the disability debate.