The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities : Multi-Level Comparative Study of Legal and Political Implementation in Germany, Austria and Denmark

The Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a document which is centred in a process of legal, societal and political change that takes place in nearly all states of the world. While the formal success of now 186 ratifications is measurable, it is quite difficult to measure and analyse the impact of the CRPD on laws, politics and on the living conditions of persons with disabilities in the societies. Law in books is not necessary law in action, and law in action is not necessarily changing things in the way that was intended. Hence, as any big legal project the CRPD is challenging scientific methods and the use that scientists make of them as well as the reception of scientific analysis and results by politics and public. However, an international covenant which is implemented in several states and societies at the same time is a big chance for comparative legal, political and sociological studies. Lilit Grigoryan was one of the first young researchers who took the chance and the challenge and started comparative work on the CRPD implementation. This book is the result of her hard and thorough work. It highlights and exemplifies how – or how not – the CRPD changed the political process and the conditions of reforms in Austria, Denmark and Germany and combines document-based, empirical and theoretical approaches to get a deeper understanding of the processes. To select a new and ongoing subject which has not been already deeply explored requires courage and commitment. Lilit Grigoryan showed both, even when bureaucratic barriers in the field and in the accommodating of her research conditions were not easy to overcome. (Vorwort)