Breaking the link between poverty and disability: re-purposing human rights in the 21st century

Gerard Quinn and Mary Keogh

Chapter 7 in Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty, 2026, pp 113-130 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter summarises the recent literature on the link between poverty and disability. It analyses the contribution of human rights doctrine in revealing these links and reversing them. It concludes that human rights doctrine did not meaningfully interrogate the social and economic exclusion of persons with disabilities until very recently. A key breakthrough was the concept of ‘inclusive equality’ embedded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) and the addition of explicit references to disability in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015). The chapter also reviews the impact of recent cutbacks in development assistance programmes which is dramatically slowing the pace of structural reform throughout the world. The main conclusion of the chapter is that both human rights and the structural reforms posited by the SDGs must work well together to bring about meaningful change.

Keywords: Disability; Invisibility; Poverty; Inclusive equality; Sustainable economic and social development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035350506
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