inherent dignity.”^44 It prohibits all discrimination on the basis of disability and requires
that all appropriate steps be taken to ensure reasonable accommodation.^45 It also
provides several rights for people with disabilities, including rights relating to employment,
education, health services, transportation, access to justice, accessibility to the physical
environment and abuse.^46 The Convention calls on participating governments to change
their country’s laws, as necessary, to comply with its articles.^47
Canada signed the Convention on March 30, 2007 and ratified it on March 11, 2010.
Ratification is the act by which Canada bound itself to the Convention and assumed the
responsibility of ensuring that it complies with the provisions therein.^48
Canada employs a “dualist” model, meaning that once a treaty has been signed and
ratified by the federal executive it still requires incorporation into domestic law to be
enforceable at the national level.^49 In Canada the usual method of implementing
international human rights treaties is to rely on existing Canadian legislation and policies.
Often Canada ratifies international human rights treaties after it has determined that
existing legislation, policies and programs conform and comply with the principles and
obligations set out in the international treaty. Federal government officials examine the
provisions of a given treaty and determine whether existing federal laws and policies
already conform to the treaty obligations. A similar review is conducted at the provincial
44 Secretary General, Final Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral
International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with
Disabilities, art. 1, delivered to the General Assembly, U.N. Doc. A/61/611 (Dec. 6, 2006) [Final
Report].
45 Convention, supra note 6, article 5.
46 These are only some of the rights articulated in the Convention. Reference should be made to the text
of the Convention regarding its scope and coverage. See 34 Syracuse J. Inl’l L. & Com. 287 (2006-
2007). This special issue of the Syracuse Law Journal contains articles discussing the significance of
the Convention and its implications.
47 Kanter, supra note 43 at 289.
48 United Nations, “Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities and its Optional Protocol: From Exclusion to Equality, Realizing the rights of persons with
disabilities” Ch. 4: Becoming a Party to the Convention and the Optional Protocol, online: <
http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/toolaction/ipuhb.pdf>; Armand de Mestral & Evan Fox-Decent,
“Rethinking the Relationship Between International and Domestic Law” (2008) 53 McGill L.J. 573 at
para. 48.
49 Due to the nature of Canadian federalism, responsibility for implementing the CRPD falls to both the
federal and provincial/ territorial governments. The federal government can legislate to implement the
CRPD in areas that fall within federal jurisdiction, but cannot do so in areas within provincial/territorial
jurisdiction.