Decisions of the European Court On Human Rights.: Nvivo textual analysis phase

This paper will mainly concentrate on models of disability that can be inferred from decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Strasburg. However at some stage reference shall be made to alternative sources of law that are legislated through the parliament of the EU, a regional body whose membership to the CRPD is a remarkable advance though distinctive from the European Convention on Human Rights.1 Empirical analysis has been systematically undertaken on two septate sets of cuprous data that was created from decisions of the ECtHR. Whereby one set comprised of ECtHR decisions from 1978-1999, these constituted more than 130 decisions. The other set of comprised more than 50 judgements of ECtHR decisions from 2010-2014. Textual and linguistic synchronising was separately undertaken on more than 150 electronic files on the above decisions. A systematic and chronological textual research design was using in organising samples sources of those decisions into nodes and then Nvivo synchronising aided the study in analytical examining and comparing models of disability underpinning complaints lodged against state parties to the European Convention in relation to Articles 3 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Even though both Articles 6, 5 and 3 of the Convention are considered, Articles 6 is accorded more attention given its connections with matters of persons with mental disabilities. Two lists of word query frequencies were also obtained by separately deriving each of them from the above two data sets respectively. Those lists of word query frequencies was careful examined in a critically engaging manner with a view of identifying from it any evidence of words or expressions that are associated with major theoretical sources from proponents of either a medical/individual or social 1 Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Letter from the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights’, N. Muižnieks to A. Xanthos Minister of Health of Greece and to T. Fotiou Alternate Minister of Social Solidarity of Greece concerning the human rights of persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities and their de-institutionalisation, 12 September 2016, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/57dab1604.html [accessed 31 October 2016]. 3 models of disability. Some of the key words that appeared in the word frequency from the above data sets but also used in discussions on theories of disability included mental, mentally, incapacity and incapacitated. Not to mention disabled and disabilities. Undertaking a qualitative systematic review and textual analysis was key to investigating how the above expressions in derived lists imply evidence of states actors or regional institutions tending to conceptualise persons with disabilities through underpinning of either a medical/individual models of based on the social right model. After using choosing mental and mentally as the suitable terms for comparing and contrasting, striking contrasts were noted in the manner in which mental disability is appearing in relation to Article 6 of ECHR. Whereby medical and individual model of disability seemed unusual and often unsuccessful in complaints lodged against state behaviour. In the 2010-2014 complaints against state behaviour of grounds of mental disabilities become apparent and often afforded theoretical underpinnings of the social model