Suchergebnisse

The right to access and benefit from health related rehabilitation is firmly grounded in several international human rights documents including among others in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which requires States to "…organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the areas of health…". This pronouncement presents new challenges at the level of policy design and service development but also for evaluation. Documented disparities in access to rehabilitation and the increasing demand for public accountability exert pressure upon health systems to assess progress in fulfilling their commitments under international human rights law. Human rights however is a vague concept, capable of multiple interpretations and its evaluation is therefore problematic not only for those involved in monitoring and evaluation but also for health professionals who may have a limited understanding of how human rights can be applied in patients care. This presentation discusses the tripartite duty of States to organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive rehabilitation services and programmes and proposes an evaluation framework. It is informed by and extends a previous analysis of the legal provisions contained in the Disability Convention with respect to rehabilitation and espouses a contemporary person-centered approach to rehabilitation care. The rights based framework is intended to inform future research on the development of relevant metrics and indicators to improve human rights monitoring and reporting.

Globally, disability represents a major challenge for health systems and contributes to the rising demand for rehabilitation care. An extensive body of evidence testifies to the barriers that people with disabilities confront in accessing rehabilitation services and to the enormous impact this has on their lives. The international legal dimension of rehabilitation is underexplored, although access to rehabilitation is a human right enshrined in numerous legal documents, specifically the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, to date, no study has analyzed the implications of the Convention for Rehabilitation Policy and Organization. This article clarifies states' obligations with respect to health-related rehabilitation for persons with disabilities under the Convention. These obligations relate to the provision of rehabilitation but extend across several key human right commitment areas such as equality and nondiscrimination; progressive realization; international cooperation; participation in policymaking processes; the accessibility, availability, acceptability, and quality of rehabilitation services; privacy and confidentiality; and informed decision making and accountability. To support effective implementation of the Convention, governments need to focus their efforts on all these areas and devise appropriate measures to monitor compliance with human rights principles and standards in rehabilitation policy, service delivery, and organization. This article lays the foundations for a rights-based approach to rehabilitation and offers a framework that may assist in the evaluation of national rehabilitation strategies and the identification of gaps in the implementation of the Convention.