The Faculty of Law's Disability Rights Unit was officially launched in April 2024 during the Faculty’s First International Disability Rights Conference. The launch was the culmination of extensive deliberations and discussions aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. Central to the discourse on disability is the question of systemic disadvantage and marginalisation characterised by the discrimination, and often complete exclusion, of persons with disabilities in society. In an attempt to address the problem, the international community adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 13 December 2006, which entered into force together with its Optional Protocol on 3 May 2008. At the African regional level, the African Union adopted the African Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa on 29 January 2018. At the national level, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, and several pieces of legislation attempt to regulate aspects related to disabilities. Even so, persons with disabilities remain marginalised.