The CRPD and its Optional Protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006 and entered into force on 3 May 2008. The CRPD marks a ‘paradigm shift’ in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities, viewing people with disabilities as ‘subjects’ with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society. It also represents a paradigm shift from a ‘medical’ model, which views the impairments as the problem, towards a ‘social’ model, which perceives the problem as the barriers which have been constructed by societies.