Abstract:
The use of law as a response to disability is arguably a recent development in Sri Lanka
and is reflected primarily in The Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act
(hereinafter ‘the Act’).1 Even at a policy level the link made between the responsibility of
the State towards disabled people and towards the protection of their rights remains weak.
Most measures taken for the improvement of the conditions of disabled people remains
both basic in quality and simplistic in its rationale. For instance, in the case of Ajith CS
Perera v Attorney General (SC/FR) 221/2009 the Supreme Court ordered that the
accessibility regulations issued under the Act in 2005 should be implemented. To-date
however the implementation of those regulations is far from satisfactory. That example
suggests that in the absence of a grounded understanding of the context (including models
for understanding disability), law reform will not be effective in improving the enjoyment
of disability rights in the country.
Therefore, in re-imagining disability law in Sri Lanka, it is necessary to draw on the
existing understandings of the impact of disability on the quality of life of people with
disability and the community in general and to also challenge some of those existing
understandings. This paper seeks to advance four arguments in that regard.
