Course Title: An Applied Human Rights-based Approach to Disability

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: An Applied Human Rights-based Approach to Disability

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
HWSS2200	City Campus	Postgraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2011
HWSS2201	City Campus	Undergraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2011

Course Coordinator: Dr. Paul Ramcharan

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925-3084

Course Coordinator Email:paul.ramcharan@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 98.1.2C

Course Coordinator Availability: email for an appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

GradCert, GradDip - A recognised university qualification and/or appropriate experience and demonstrable capacity to pursue study at a postgraduate level.

Undergraduate elective – 3rd and 4th year students registered on an undergraduate course at RMIT

Course Description

This postgraduate level elective course is designed to equip students working the disability sector or in public authorities which have contact with people with disabilities to understand how to implement a human rights based approach under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It will also examine the nature of reporting procedures and shadow reporting.

The student will gain an understanding of the history and emergence of a rights agenda within disability and challenge biomedical, pathological and behavioural models which have dominated service delivery for al least the past fifty years. Advocacy and campaigning by people with disabilities will be examined as a precursor to understanding their claims for social justice and equality. This will be supplemented by an examination of the present moves towards implementation of human rights legislation and Conventions and he achievement of a human rights-base approach to services delivery, disability support and empowered lives.

During this course students will engage in debates around the development of disability policy and practice and place these within a model of social justice and deliberative democracy in which self advocacy plays a major role. The notion of municipal action and community development will be used to explore potential avenues for developing community inclusion from a human rights-based perspective. From the point of view of duty-bearers students will be supported to use tools and approaches to develop relationships of empowerment through interaction: the adoption of non-negotiables, individualised funding and an agenda of personalisation will be compared to collectivist approaches and to the development of models based on social capital, bridging and bonding. Students will gain skills in making choices about how to choose between these options and applied knowledge around what they might look like in practice. Students will also learn more about the limitations placed on human rights under the Disability Act 2006 and other legislation worldwide. In particular they will learn about new models of restrictive intervention and Supervised Treatment Orders which challenge dominant models and will from new research learn about the application of new models capable of maximising freedom and protecting human rights.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Upon completion of the course the student will be able to:
• Identify practice-based strategies at the interface between duty-bearers and rights-holders likely to lead to empowerment and to reflect how these implicate disability policy and practice at meso- and macro-organisational levels
• Have an understanding of the priorities for implementation within disability services based upon the implementation of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, The Disability Act and the CRPD.
• To be able to identify key areas and strategies for reporting under human rights legisaltion and conventions and the issues around shadow reporting and submitting complaints
• Enact new strategies which recategorise traditional responses to limitations on rights tied to restrictive interventions and Supervised Treatment orders.

Upon completion of the course the student will be able to:
• Identify practice-based strategies at the interface between duty-bearers and rights-holders likely to lead to empowerment and to reflect how these implicate disability policy and practice at meso- and macro-organisational levels
• Have an understanding of the priorities for implementation within disability services based upon the implementation of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, The Disability Act and the CRPD.
• To be able to identify key areas and strategies for reporting under human rights legisaltion and conventions and the issues around shadow reporting and submitting complaints
• Enact new strategies which recategorise traditional responses to limitations on rights tied to restrictive interventions and Supervised Treatment orders.

Overview of Learning Activities

Short lectures will be supplemented by workshops aimed at developing resources for the fulfilment of human rights be people with disabilities, writing a shadow report on the CRPD and developing audit mechanisms for human rights and disability.

During 2011 the course will be further developed into an appropriate on-line learning resource with a view to widening the potential student group.

Overview of Learning Resources

Learning activities will be managed via a reading list, reference to web resources and from direct contact with the disability sector. There are many emergent resources as the Charter and UN CRPD are so young. People are gearing up in the sector for implementation and delivery and new resources and documents emerge with regularity. Members of an advocacy group (likely Australian Federation of Disability Organisations), from DHS and DPCD will be invited to support the class in learning.

Overview of Assessment

Assessments will vary year by year and dependent upon whether the course is being taken face-to-face or through distance learning and at postgraduate or undergraduate elective levels. Students will be offered assessments which best reflect their learning styles and which are accorded equal marks. The assessments may be in the form of: essays; on line discussion; group development of a wiki; or case study.