Our Board member from Serbia, Rados Keravica (you can read more about Rados’s background here) published two academic papers this year on the basis of his doctoral research on disabled children’s participation in healthcare decision-making. Both of the papers Rados published this year are publicly available and you can access them and read them if you are interested in learning more.
His doctoral research project uses socio-legal analysis and focuses on disabled children’s participation in healthcare decision-making in the context of impairment-related elective orthopaedic treatments. It further explores the relationship between the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in the area of child participation.
Bearing in mind that many disabled children undergo medical interventions with a view to minimize their impairment effects and experience more hospitalisations compared to their non-disabled peers, Rados wanted to see to what extent adults consult with children with respect to medical interventions and to what extent children have their say in these important matters.
The first paper titled “Pathologisation of Disabled Childhood as an Impediment for Independent Living” was published in conference proceedings of the conference “Transition towards Independent Living within the Community for Persons with Disabilities” and is available here. It was organised by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in cooperation with the Government of Malta, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Beirut, Lebanon in February. Rados attended a conference in Beirut in February this year to present the paper and you can listen to his speech here along with the presentations of other disability researchers from Arab and Europe regions. Rados contended that by failing to listen to children’s opinions and not investing time and resources to support them to express their views their potential for independent living as adults becomes impeded.
Rados wrote another paper titled “Disabled Children’s Participation in Healthcare Decision Making” which was published in “Routledge International Handbook for Children’s Rights and Disability” co-edited by Prof. Angharad Beckett from the University of Leeds and Prof. Anne-Marie Callus from the University of Malta. The book features contributions from many renowned authors including CPRD Committee members, academic researchers and disability activists, as well as personal experience stories written by disabled children and young people from all over the world. In this paper, Rados explored the barriers to participation in healthcare decision-making that disabled children face.
Rados continues to work on his doctoral studies at the University of Leeds, Centre for Disability Studies. He is supervised by Prof. Angharad Beckett and our former Board member Dr Miro Griffiths. If you want to find more details about his work you can write to Rados at ssrke@leeds.ac.uk.
