A History of Learning Disability and Human Rights

Name: A History of Learning Disability and Human Rights
Start: 2022-07-06T18:30:00+02:00
End: 2022-07-06T20:00:00+02:00

6 July 2022, 6.30 – 8pm (CET)

Royal College of Nursing, London

Online event

Book a free ticket here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/events/lib-history-of-learning-disability-060722

In many ways the past few decades have been a revolutionary period for people with learning disabilities across the world, culminating in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). However, successful implementation of the CRPD has been a complex business for people with learning disabilities, constrained by the legacy of historic legislation, structures, systems and attitudes. In this talk, we take the long view on the question of rights for people with learning disabilities, tracing back to the UK’s Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 and the emergence of eugenics, which marked the beginning of the incarceration of people with learning disabilities on a widespread scale. Despite some progress over time, we ask why upholding the rights of people with learning disabilities continues to be so difficult to achieve.