Book Reviews: Disability, Discrimination and Equal Opportunities: A Comparative Study of the Employment Rights of Disabled Persons, Human Rights and Disabled Persons
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9500200407 |
| Date | 01 December 1995 |
| Published date | 01 December 1995 |
| Author | Gwyneth Pitt |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Brian Doyle,
Disability,
Discrimination
and Equal
Opportunities:
a com-
parative studyof the
employment
rights
of
disabled
persons,Mansell, 1995,
380 pages, paperback, £20, hardback £55.
Theresia Degener and
Yo1an
Koster-Dreese, (eds)
Human
Rights
and
DisabledPersons, Martinus Nijhoff, 1995, 757 pages, hardback, Dfl.375,
£154, $247.50.
Disability discrimination is an issue which has moved rapidly up the political agenda in
the 1990s. In the wake of the EC Recommendation 1in 1986 that Member States
should review their existing legislation on equal opportunities for people with disabil-
ities, in particular in relation to employment, a number of countries have amended or
introduced laws to increase protection against disadvantage resulting from disability.
Much of the impetus for reform has come from the shift in philosophy which now
presents the argument as an issue about the civil or human rights of people with
disabilities. Two strands can be detected here: first, the influence of developments in
the USA, where reformers based their arguments on civil rights by analogy with the
battles successfully fought over race and sex discrimination. The result, the Americans
with Disabilities Act 1990 (ADA), setsout anextensive and ambitious standard address-
ing not only employment but also transport, telecommunications and access to public
places in a comprehensive way which has won many admirers. The other influence
comes from within the EC as activists in many fields, having seen the transformation
of sex discrimination law as a result of Article 119, consider the potential of EC law
for securing desirable advances in other areas, for example, trade union rights.
The government of the
UK
rather surprisingly took the view that no changes were
needed to the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 in order to meet the standard
1. Recommendation 86/379, [1986] 0.1. L225/43.
MJ 2 (1995) 421
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