This presentation explores the “right to live in the community” for people with disabilities under international law, and the laws of the United States and Israel. Article 19 of the Convention on the Right of People with Disabilities (CRPD) guarantees all people with disabilities “the right to live in the community, with choices equal to others.” Similarly, the US Americans with Disabilities Act includes a specific integration mandate which the United States Supreme Court, upheld as a (limited) right to live in the community for people with disabilities. In Israel, the Knesset also enacted a comprehensive disability law which upholds the right of people with disabilities to live in the community, but the Israeli Supreme Court recently decided a case which, arguably, fails to fully enforce the right to community living under Israeli Law. This presentation will examine the extent to which the CRPD’s community living mandate can be realized both in the US and in Israel. Professor Kanter argues for abandoning the concept of “community living” in favor of an explicit right of all people with disabilities to not only live in the community, but to live in a home in a community – either one’s own home or a home shared by others with whom he or she chooses to live. The argument for this new right to “live in a home within a community” therefore advances not only the goals and requirements of the UN CRPD, but also US and Israeli domestic disability laws and policies
All disabilities
Policy & Legislation
Self-Advocacy & Leadership
General public, Professionals