The Right to Autonomy and the Conditions that Secure It: The Relationship Between the UNCRPD and Market-Based Policy Reform

There is no defined article in the CRPD that deals with the right to autonomy or self-determination, but the articles of the Convention, when taken together, represent a holistic principle of personal autonomy that is innovative in the context of international human rights law on a number of levels. The CRPD does more than extend existing civil and political rights to people with disability, it also provides guidance to states about how to embed the conditions of support that would enable people with disability to exercise these rights. This chapter will explore how the conception of personal autonomy that underpins the Convention represents a valuable alternative vision of human flourishing, particularly when contrasted with the conception of autonomy that underpins the individualization and marketization characterizing disability policy and services reform in many states.