The Human Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

Professor Stanley S. Herr taught at the University of Maryland School of Law from 1983 until his death in September 2001. In addition to his work in public policy, he was a Switzer Distinguished Research Fellow of the National Insitiute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Schell Senior Research Fellow at the Yale Law School Schell Center for International Human Rights, and President of the American Association on Mental Retardation.Lawrence O. Gostin is Professor of Law at Georgetown University, Professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, and Director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Univerities. He has contributed to U.S. government advisory boards in several areas of public health.Harold Hongju Koh is the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1985. From 1998 to 2001, he served in the U.S. as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. He has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Guggenheim and Century Foundations.

For generations, persons with intellectual disabilities have too often been the invisible minority: scorned, ignored , hidden from the world. This landmark volume demonstrates that a new era of respect, support, and opportunity has begun. These essays by acknowledged world leaders on human rights and intellectual disabilities emphasize the importance of effective action by all nations to protect these basic rights by implementing fair and sensible social policies.

• Dedication ; Foreword ; Introduction ; I. CONCEPTUALIZING INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES: HISTORY AND TERMINOLOGY ; 1. Meeting the Needs of People with Intellectual Disabilities: International Perspectives ; 2. Terminology and Power ; 3. Definitions and Classifications in Cross-cultural Perspectives ; 4. Social Policy Toward Intellectual Disablilities in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries ; II. THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT: INTERNATIONAL NORMS AND STANDARDS ; 5. From Wrongs to Rights: International Human Rights and Legal Protection ; 6. Disability as a Subject of International Human Rights Law and Comparative Discrimination Law ; 7. Human Rights Standards and Legal Reforms ; 8. Liberty, Due Process, and the Pursuit of Happiness ; III. THE DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT: ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION ; 9. The Potential of Disability Nondiscrimination Laws ; 10. When Legislation Should Take Intellectual Disabilities into Account ; 11. Statutory Changes in Disability Policy: Types of Legislation, Policies, and Goals ; IV. EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCE: SOCIAL POLICY PERSPECTIVES ; 12. On Second Thoughts: Constructing knowledge, Law, Disability, and Inequality ; 13. Prevention of Disability: Is There a Conflict between Public health Prevention and Respect for Persons with Disabilities ; 14. Studying the Emerging Workforce ; 15. The Economics of Equality: An Exploration of Country Differences ; 16. Out-of-home Placement of Children with Intellectual Disabilities: the Need for a Family Support Policy ; 17. Self Determination, Autonomy, and Alternatives for Guardianship ; V. FUTURE GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS ; 18. Voices of Self-advocates ; 19. Recommendations for Developing Nations ; 20. Recommendations for the United Nations and International NGOs ; Conclusion