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Putting the UN Disability Convention into practice
Sara Brunet, Senior Lawyer and UNCRPD lead officer, EHRC
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The UN Disability Convention
• International human rights agreement signed by the UK Government
• Recognising disabled people continue to face barriers to equal participation and violations of their human rights
• Commitment to ensure disabled people enjoy the same human rights as everyone else without discrimination
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Human rights framework
• Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that everyone is entitled to
• They are about how the state treats you • Universal Declaration of Human Rights – no
new rights • Specific Convention to ensure disabled
people’s rights become everyday reality • Convention is based on the social model of
disability
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Whose job is it to implement the Convention?
• UK Government in partnership with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Office for Disability Issues is ‘focal point and co-ordinating mechanism’ within UK– Co-ordinates action to implement the Convention
across government departments and devolved administrations
– UK Gov submitted first state report to the UN Disability Committee in November 2011
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What obligations does the Convention place on Government?• Ensure disabled people have protection
from all forms of discrimination including failure to make reasonable adjustments
• Pass new laws and make new policies where appropriate
• Abolish or change laws and practices that discriminate against disabled people
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What obligations does the Convention place on Government?
• Take account of disabled people’s human rights in its policies and programmes– ‘mainstreaming’
• Collect and disseminate data and statistics– Measuring progress, developing better policies
• Ensure public authorities comply with the Convention– For example, local councils, health boards, police,
regulators such Care Quality Commission
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Role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
• EHRC is an ‘independent mechanism to ‘promote, protect and monitor’ the implementation of the Convention
• Monitors progress by the governments of Britain in implementing the Convention
• Report on that progress to the UN Disability Committee in a ‘shadow report’– The Commission will involve disabled people when
developing and writing its report
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The Commission’s work on the Convention
• Raising awareness and encourage participation
• Providing advice and information to disabled people and public authorities– E-updates; UNCRPD Guide
• Mainstreaming the Convention across our work– Disability Harassment Inquiry– Intervention in Burnip(legal case)
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Know the Convention: your rights
• Specific rights called ‘articles’• Key principles (articles 1 –5)– apply across all the rights
• Articles across all aspects of life e.g.– Making your own decisions / right to legal
capacity (article 12)– Independent living and being included in
the community (article 19)– Education (article 24)
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Know the Convention: your rights
• Protection for specific groups– Disabled women (article 6)– Disabled children (article 7)
• Reservations and interpretive declarations
• Immediate obligations and ‘progressive realisation’
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Know the Convention: Optional Protocol
• Communications procedure– Individual complaints
• Inquiry procedure– Investigation into severe or widespread
violations of the Convention
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How the Convention relates to our domestic laws
• Domestic laws must meet Convention’s requirements
• Not directly part of domestic law• BUT courts should use it to interpret Human
Rights Act and disability discrimination law especially Public Sector Equality Duty
• Government and public authorities – Must take account of and act in accordance with
the Convention in their work
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Monitoring and involvement: role of disabled people and their organisations
• “Nothing about us, without us” – disabled people are central to implementation of the Convention
• Your right to be involved (article 33)– Government must involve disabled people
when they are monitoring progress– Fulfilling Potential Office for Disability Issues
• Shadow reporting– UK examination expected in late 2014 or 2015
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Role of the United Nations (UN)
• The UN Disability Committee – Monitors what each country that has ratified
the Convention is doing to put it into practice – Two then four yearly report and examination
process – Concluding observations: Recommendations
about what the government can do to deliver disabled people’s human rights
• Optional Protocol
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How to use the Convention
• Raise awareness among disabled people• Write and submit a shadow report– Get involved with other UN monitoring
• Conventions on rights of women and children
• Raise awareness with researchers and survey designers
• Use for advocacy and influencing national and local services
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How to use the Convention
• Ask public authorities what they are doing to comply with the Convention
• To support human rights arguments in legal cases
• Parliamentary questions• JCHR inquiry on independent living• Tool for human rights impact
assessment
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Getting involved
• Contact your local or national disability organisation, for example:
• Disability Rights Watch UK www.disabilityrightswatchuk.org
• Deaf and Disabled People’s Legal Network
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Getting involved
• Working with the EHRC • Sign up for e-bulletin • Use our UNCRPD Guide and web pages :
• www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/human-rights-practical-guidance/guidance-from-the-commission/a-guide-to-the-un-disability-convention
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Getting involved
• Take part in the Government’s work developing ‘new cross-government disability strategy’ - Fulfilling Potential
• http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/fulfilling-potential/index.php