The disabled people according to past and present brazilian constitutions: public policies, rights, and fundamental rights

Abstract

“Disability” has always been present. It can be said, thus, that its history is interwoven with the history of humanity itself. In the first societies, disabled people were described as human persons who deserved to be abandoned to their fate, because they “obstructed” the development of the activities in a community. There are also accounts according to which a disabled person was considered a monster (a deformity, an aberration) of nature as a result of divine punishment. In the Middle Ages, this social rejection gave rise to welfarism, one more oriented towards pity (compassion) than to social inclusion. Nowadays, it seems that we are experiencing a different moment: it is wanted that disabled people enjoy fully guaranteed fundamental rights, many of them included in different laws and constitutions, as it happens in Brazil. The World Health Organization estimates that, in the world, more than 700 million people who are 15 years old or older live with some kind of disability. According to the last Demographic Census carried out in Brazil, the country’s disabled population is 46 million. The intention of this work is, taking into account constitutional texts and brazilian infra-constitutional norms, to present important legal and social achievements gained by this minority during the last years, as well as to recommend some actions found in comparative law.