Palestinian Legislation Governing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities In light of International Conventions "Legislative Alignments"

Abstract

The principle of equality is fundamental in the democratic state and the rule of Law. According to this principle, the state takes care of all categories of human society, especially persons with disabilities. As a result, the national Legislation regulates the rights of persons with disabilities in parallel with international Legislation; the state will get a prominent position in the international community. The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 was the first comprehensive and general regulation of the rights of persons with disabilities. This is the center of our research through reading it with the relevant Palestinian national Legislation, especially the Persons with Disabilities Law of 1999. The importance of this study is that it examines the extent of the shortcomings of national Legislation for an important group of Palestinian society which is persons with disabilities, in order to provide advice to specialists to move towards a law that provides a better life for persons with disabilities. This study followed the descriptive, analytical, and comparative approach by being exposed to the Palestinian Legislation and comparing it with the texts of international conventions. The study concluded with a set of results. The most notable is that the right to equality and non-discrimination is one of the most important rights dealt with in international conventions and national Legislation. Besides, one of the most important recommendations was the necessity of establishing a separate chapter for people with disabilities related to rights and freedoms, whether in the current basic Palestinian Law or in the future constitution.