The Legal Protection of the Rights of Person With Disabilities in International Civil Aviation

Every human being has the same rights in every aspect of life, including in civil aviation. These rights also belong to persons with disabilities. As a transport mode, aviation has to recognize and accommodate passengers who happen to be persons with disabilities. They have the same international rights, such as accessibility, and also full and effective participation and inclusion in society. This includes freedom of movement and freedom of choices as stipulated in Articles 3.c and Article 3.f of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means that persons with disabilities must have the same access to the air transportation. This paper discussed the legal protection of rights of disabilities in international civil aviation. We found that the international instruments regarding civil aviation have regulated the protection and fulfillment of the rights of persons with disabilities in air transport. However, these various international instruments are only recommended practices and manual, which means they are not legally binding to the States, airports, and airlines. Thus we recommend the ICAO to develop an official standard that has legal binding power and must be implemented by the ICAO member countries, along with airports and airlines all over the world. This standard must be continuously updated so that they can continue to provide protection and fulfillment of rights of persons with disabilities in international