Human Rights Based Approach to Disability in Development in Uganda: A Way to Fill the Gap between Political and Social Spaces?

Abstract

Human rights have become one of the key concepts both in theory and practice of disability studies. The trend is applicable also to the discourse of disability in development: disability in “developing countries”. This paper investigates both the theory and practice of human rights based approach to disability in development. The case study is on Uganda, which has succeeded in creating political space for persons with disabilities while their social space has not been developed as much. Both interviews and literature reviews illustrate the argument. On the basis of the findings from the Ugandan case, we analyse the gap between political and social spaces from the perspective of the human rights based approach, and summarize the significances of the approach to disability in development, and also the challenges in its operationalisation. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.