The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Beginning to Examine the Implications for Canadian Lawyers' Professional Responsiblities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter the CRPD or the Convention) should herald a new epoch in the way persons with disabilities are treated throughout the world community. The entire panoply of ramifications of this Convention, the purpose of which is “to promote, protect and ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity”, (Article 1) is as yet unascertainable. However, States Parties must “take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination by any person, organization or private enterprise” (Article 4(1) (e)), among other obligations. For the self-governing legal profession, the primary responsibility for ensuring compliance falls to its individual members, its law societies and its federations. This mission is critical in order to demonstrate that lawyers avoid discriminatory “customs and practices” (Article 4(1)(c)) and it is incumbent upon the profession as it continues to fulfil its essential role as an unwritten pillar of the Canadian constitution in upholding the rule of law. This article provides a small contribution to the extensive self-examination mandated by the Convention for the bar. It offers a brief overview of the CRPD in order to introduce its rich array of novel measures. The paper spotlights principles of professional ethics which are implicated by the Convention and identifies other areas of governance and policy wherein lawyers should consider its effects. The article then endeavours to articulate features of the moral dimension of legal professionalism which must be reconfigured in the wake of the Convention. The exhortations of the CRPD for lawyers seem daunting, but the prescribed reforms are both socially responsible and long overdue. The concentration herein will be on persons with long-term “mental” or “intellectual” impairments (Article 1), who experience discrimination and stigma most acutely, as exemplified by the readiness of society and the legal system to intrude upon their autonomy, remove their capacity for decision-making, permit forcible interventions and confine them to “live in conditions of poverty” (Preamble (t)). However, most of the following comments would apply to other persons with disabilities who have “physical” or “sensory impairments” (Article 1).