United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

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Today we’re going to be talking about the Human Rights of people with disabilities.  A recent United Nations Convention was unprecedented in the speed with which it was put together.  That was because the process of putting it together actually involved the very people it affected.

Those involved:

• Jenifer Johnston,the Communications Manager at the Scottish Human Rights Commission

• Duncan Wilson, Head of Legal and Strategy at the Commission,

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DW:    There was a recognition globally among disabled peoples’ organisations and activists that the current International Human Rights framework wasn’t doing justice to the rights of people with disabilities in practice.  The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a brand new International Human Rights instrument.  The UK is close to being in the first wave of countries to step up to ratify it.  The Convention itself was passed internationally with unprecedented speed really.  In large part, that was due to the participation of disabled people in the drafting process itself.

JJ:       The Convention aimed to help disabled people, not by creating a raft of new rights, Duncan says, but by making sure that existing rights were heeded.

DW:    The principle of the Convention is not to create new rights but it’s to give life to those rights that disabled people already have.  The first principle of Human Rights Law is that rights are universal, they apply to everyone, but the strong global view of disabled people was that in practice, their rights were not being adequately respected, protected and fulfilled.  So the Convention lists in some detail the full range of Human Rights that disabled people have.

JJ:       It is hoped that the Convention changes the focus of disabled people and their rights, says Duncan.

DW:    In essence, the Convention changes the paradigm for understanding disability and how states should respond to it.  It moves beyond a discrimination and a welfare model where disabled people’s rights are understood through a needs lens, but it turns that into moving the focus from disabled people as objects of welfare to subjects of rights.  One of the core aims of the Convention is to give life to the phrase that disabled people around the world have often mobilised behind, which is “Nothing about us without us,” and that translates through the Convention to a clear expression that disabled people have the right to participate in all decisions that impact on the realisation of their Human Rights.  The flip side of that is a duty on governments and public authorities to take into account the impact of their decisions on the rights of people with disabilities.  Those are core Human Rights principles but what this Convention does is it spells out in plain language that these are rights and responsibilities that need to be taken into account in all decision making.  So the Convention has in addition to making clear exactly what aims states need to pursue to realise the rights of disabled people, it changes the process in which laws, policies and practices need to be developed and very much puts disabled people at the centre of decision making as to how laws and policies are shaped that impact on their rights.

JJ:       So how will these rights be enforced and protected on the ground?  Duncan says that a new single point of focus within government will help make the Convention’s aspirations a reality.

DW:    Another innovation in the Convention is that it makes very clear what steps need to be taken at the national level, to ensure implementation.  This was based on a recognition that often the gap in Human Rights protection is between the international and the national level where often states report internationally on what they’re doing on a five yearly basis but there aren’t the mechanisms in place at the national level to ensure on a day to day basis that they are actually progressing effectively in realising rights.  This Convention changes that.  It spells out clearly that every state party to the Convention needs to establish a focal point in Government, to ensure coordination between all the various ministries and departments that have responsibilities.  In this Convention, that would include the Education Ministry.  It would include the Welfare Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Justice Ministry, all of those that have responsibilities for realising Human Rights.  This Convention makes it clear that there needs to be a central coordinating point within Government to ensure that the Convention is mainstreamed across the whole of Government.  Another innovative element of the Convention is the inclusion within it of an independent mechanism, which is to be established in all state parties, to promote the Convention, to ensure protection of the rights under the Convention and to monitor realisation of rights under the Convention.  In the UK, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, together with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Equality Commission together form an independent framework body and we are already setting up the process in which we’ll ensure that disabled people themselves participate in shaping our own work as well as shaping the policies that Government develops to implement the Convention.