Abstract of A.S. Kanter lecture

“THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY FOR PEOPLE WITH

DISABILITIES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE LAWS OF

THE US AND ISRAEL.”

A.S. Kanter

Syracuse University, USA

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.