Art.3 General Principles

Abstract

This chapter examines Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which sets out the general principles of the CRPD. Prior to the CRPD, general principles were inferred from core articles of a treaty or from preambles. In this sense, the introduction of a stand-alone article on general principles departs from the architecture of previous international human rights treaties. The chapter is divided into two parts. First, it provides an overview of the drafting process of Article 3. Second, it discusses each of the eight principles set out in Article 3, which may be identified as falling within one of the two prevalent themes of the Convention, namely equality and non-discrimination, and participation and inclusion—the latter theme constituting a common feature of an experimental governance regime.