Disability Rights UK is currently developing a parallel report in response to the United Nations Committee’s investigation of the UK Government’s record on the rights of disabled people since it ratified the UN convention in 2009.
We wish to draw directly on the experiences of disabled people and have already made two successive appeals through our website and social media for individual disabled people to respond with testimony and evidence.
Though there are 33 articles it is not our ambition to respond to all of them. We have some clear priorities and these include access to justice (article 13), living independently and being included in the community (article 19), respect for the home and family (article 23), work and employment (article 27), accessibility (article 9) and access to adequate standards of living and social protection (article 28).
There is a total word count limit of 10,700 and so we are seeking to provide pithy and well referenced responses that deal with the record of successive governments. We are particularly keen to quote court decisions that are illustrative of transgressions of disabled people’s rights or infringements of current entitlement.
Though we are undertaking this work ourselves it is our wish to share information with the wider disability sector so please do let me know if you have any difficulties with this for any reason. We are also supportive of efforts to produce one parallel report and are looking to allow time for consensus to emerge.
The latest information is that the deadline of the committee has postponed to an unknown date next year but it would be sensible for us all to proceed with our own work in readiness.
The UK government's response for the UNCRPD monitoring is here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en&TreatyID=4&DocTypeID=29
Thank you
Philip.connolly@disabilityrightsuk.org
0207 250 8192