Transcript Putting the Convention into practice

Putting the UN Disability
Convention into practice
Sara Brunet, Senior Lawyer and
UNCRPD lead officer, EHRC
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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)
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’
Know the Convention: Optional
Protocol
• Communications procedure
– Individual complaints
• Inquiry procedure
– Investigation into severe or widespread
violations of the Convention
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
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
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
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
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
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
Getting involved
• Working with the EHRC
• Sign up for e-bulletin
• Use our UNCRPD Guide and web pages :
• www.equalityhumanrights.com/humanrights/human-rights-practical-guidance/guidancefrom-the-commission/a-guide-to-the-un-disabilityconvention
Getting involved
• Take part in the Government’s work
developing ‘new cross-government disability
strategy’ - Fulfilling Potential
• http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/fulfillingpotential/index.php