There are 650 million people with disabilities in the world; four-fifths of them live in the developing world. While much has been done in the developed world to improve the lot of people with disabilities and to bring us closer to equality, we are not there yet; things are that much worse in the developing world.
One year ago yesterday, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was opened for signing. It has been signed by 126 states, including the UK, but only ratified by seventeen: Bangladesh, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Gabon, Guinea, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, San Marino, South Africa and Spain.
What does the UNCRPD do?
Essentially, it builds on the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1994) and the World Programme of Action on Disabled Persons (1982), neither of which are binding treaties.
In short, it says ‘nothing about us without us’; participating countries have to change laws and ban discriminatory customs and practices. Partly, these are promoting cultural changes, putting legal principles into place to support those changes, making physical and infrastructure changes and making funds available for those changes. The BBC enumerates some of the key principles:
- Disabled people to have an equal right to life
- Equal rights for disabled women and girls
- Protection for children with disabilities
- A right to own and inherit property, to control financial affairs and have equal access to financial services
- Disabled people not to be deprived of their liberty “unlawfully or arbitrarily”
- Medical or scientific experiments without consent to be banned
- An end to enforced institutionalisation
- Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse
- A right to privacy and access to medical records
- Countries to remove barriers to accessing the environment, transport, public facilities and communication
- A right to independent living
- Essential equipment to be made affordable
- A right to an adequate standard of living and social protection
- An end to discrimination relating to marriage, family and personal relationships
- Equal access to education
- An end to discrimination in the job market
- A right to equal participation in public life
- A right to participate in cultural life
- Developing countries to be assisted to put the convention into practice
So what?
If another three states ratify, the treaty will start to come into force. None of the above should be controversial; however, there is a concern that the UK government may not want to ratify the treaty because of the right not to live in an institution.
What do we do?
The disability charity, SCOPE, are asking us all to give the government a nudge and make sure that it is ratified without exemption or qualification by the end of the year. There is a petition at the Number Ten website that reads “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in full, without reservation or limitation, by December 2008”. Please take a moment to sign it. More information is available on the SCOPE webpage.
xD.