Citizenship according to the UNCRPD and in practice: a plea for a broader view

Abstract

This article relates the eight Guiding Principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to both liberal and relational perspectives on autonomy and different layers of citizenship. While the UNCRPD covers a broad scope of citizenship, accounting for liberal and relational values of autonomy, it appears that the recent long-term care reforms in the Netherlands primarily address outcomes based on liberal values. As a consequence, persons with long-term cross-domain care needs face barriers that threaten their citizenship in terms of access to adequate care and support services. We argue that long-term care and support services need to explicitly address the relational aspects of autonomy to warrant the citizenship of persons with disabilities.