FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Deaf and Disabled People to witness United Nations scrutiny of UK Government’s human rights record
On Monday 18 March Deaf and Disabled campaigners and trade unionists from across the UK will gather in Geneva to watch the UK governments give evidence to the United Nations. The public session is part of a follow-up to the special inquiry undertaken by the UN Committee for the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The special inquiry report published in 2016 found the UK guilty of grave and systematic violations of Disabled people’s rights due to austerity and welfare reform measures.
Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations gave their evidence to the Committee for its follow-up in August 2023 along with equality and human rights commissions from the four nations. The government did not attend, stating it was not ready and would instead appear before the Committee at its following session in March 2024.
The Committee’s scrutiny of the government’s human rights record is a rare opportunity to expose the worsening inequalities and injustice experienced by disabled people in the UK.
Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts who triggered the special inquiry, said:
“The UK government’s failure to turn up in August showed the utter contempt they have, not only for Deaf and Disabled people but also for the UN Disability Committee. At this stage we’re not even sure if they will turn up on Monday. The last written report they sent to the Committee was in December 2022.
“The Convention holds great importance for us because it sets out a vision of full equality and inclusion. The Government’s record on disability since 2010 is of great international concern because they have so deliberately and flagrantly driven the UK backwards in terms of its treatment of Deaf and Disabled people with the Department for Work and Pensions leading the charge in callousness and sheer brutality.”
The special inquiry focuses on three specific areas: social security, employment and community living.
Burnip added:
“There have been massive cuts to Local Authority budgets, a failure to implement the appeals process in the Care Act 2014, and a massive increase in charges for social care with only one increase in the amount of money Disabled people should be left to live off in 9 years. This is leaving more and more Disabled people trapped not just in poverty but also in their homes without the support they need to take part in the community or stay in contact with family and friends.”
A consultation held to inform a report from disability organisations to the UN submitted at the end of March 2022 found that overwhelmingly Deaf and Disabled people across England had experienced life as getting worse since 2017.
Alongside continuing deterioration in living standards, incomes and community inclusion, respondents cited difficulties arising from EU withdrawal and the pandemic leading to a recruitment crisis in social care among other issues.
Worsening attitudes towards Deaf and Disabled people and a devaluation of the worth of our lives was also a common theme, sparked by denial of life saving treatment to Disabled patients and political and public debate blaming the “clinically vulnerable” for adverse economic impacts linked to lockdown.
One consultant respondent expressed their view that: “What unsettles me is that we have a government who would gladly drop help to those of us who are disabled while they are in power.”
Another said: “It feels like people hate you more than they did before.”
In the past year alone, several further regressive policies affecting large numbers of Disabled people across the UK have been announced alongside inadequate measures to mitigate the impacts of the cost of living crisis.
Transforming Support: the health and disability white paper published in March 2023 plans to cut benefits to around 632,000 Disabled people who have been unable to earn a living through paid employment.
Under the same plans all Disabled people, no matter how severely Disabled, will potentially be liable to having their benefits stopped if they don’t engage in activity to find work.
At the moment, medically qualified professionals are required to determine a person’s capability for work but the government wants to pass this responsibility onto already over-worked frontline work coaches to make judgement calls on what Disabled benefit claimants can and can’t do.
In November 2023, the government announced proposals to tighten the Work Capability Assessment which will cut benefits to an estimated 630,000 Disabled people.
Svetlana Kotova, Director of Campaigns and Justice for Inclusion London, who led on the 2022 report said:
“Deaf and Disabled people are very frightened about the planned changes to disability benefits.
“Half of all poverty in the UK is already linked to disability and new figures show a sharp increase in disability poverty even before the cost of living crisis. The recent budget announced an end to cost of living payments, despite the fact that Disabled people have been hardest hit by inflation.
“To then cut benefits to people with no realistic chance of employment through absolutely no fault of their own is inhumanly cruel and will undoubtedly lead to more benefit deaths.”
Ellen Clifford, co-ordinator for the UK Coalition who leads on UK-wide monitoring under the Convention said:
“Both of the main political parties in Westminster are competing over who can appear toughest on welfare. In the process, and with help from sections of the media, they are presenting an entirely skewed picture of the social security system.
Far from the record numbers of out of work benefit claimants the government claims, analysis shows that figures have remained fairly stable. However, we do know that disability prevalence is rising.
“A more responsible approach than disability denial would be to look into why that is happening. Instead, both parties are happy to punish Disabled people in order to get elected.
“All of this – the targeting of Disabled people to make budget savings when other choices could be made, and the unfounded rhetoric increasing hostility against Disabled people – is in direct contravention of the recommendations from the 2016 special inquiry. There is simply no credible way that the UK Government can defend itself against a charge of continuing, indeed worsening, grave and systematic violations of Disabled people’s rights”
For more information and access to case studies contact: Ellen Clifford 07505144371
The evidence session on March 18th can be viewed live online from 2-3:30pm GMT.
The UK DDPO shadow report can be found here: crdp.org.uk
Notes for Editors
1) The UK-wide delegation includes members from: All Wales People First; Black Triangle; CWU; Disability Rights UK; Disability Wales; Disabled People Against Cuts; DPAC Deaf Group; DPAC Northern Ireland; DPAC Cambridgeshire & Essex; Equity; Inclusion London; Inclusion Scotland; Liberation; Manchester RAPAR; North West Disability Forum; Omnibus Partnership; PCS union; People First Scotland; Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance; TUC Disabled Workers’ Committee; Unite the Union.
2) The UN’s finding of grave and systematic rights violations was the result of a comprehensive investigation taking place over a number of years under the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The Committee reviewed thousands of pages of robustly evidence-based research and reports and met hundreds of people during their visit to the UK. The report and recommendations, published on 6 November 2016, were dismissed by the UK Government.
3) In 2017, the UK was publicly examined as part of routine monitoring procedures to which all signatories to the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People are subject. The findings were again damning with the Chair of the Committee stating that “social cuts had caused a human catastrophe”.
4) One of the 2017 recommendations was for the UK Government to report back to the Committee on its progress implementing the recommendations from the special inquiry. Three reports were submitted by the UK Government in December 2022.
5) Written reports submitted by Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations in 2022 evidence the retrogression of Deaf and Disabled People’s rights. Key findings:
- The situation for Disabled people got worse after 2017 when UN last looked at the UK’s progress.
- Westminster Government has taken some positive steps, but they have not addressed key problems.
- The COVID-19 pandemic response discriminated against Disabled people and violated our equal right to life
- Disability equality and human rights approaches towards disability have been further undermined since 2017
- There is insufficient monitoring and promotion of the CRDP by Westminster Government
7) While the UK Government’s cuts to benefits and services have profoundly negative impacts across the UK, the devolved administrations have responsibility for some areas of policy that are of key importance to disabled people and different approaches have been taken. Journalists with questions about the devolved nations can contact: Scotland: John McArdle 07379612778, Wales: Megan Thomas 07990 425823, Northern Ireland: Michael Lorimer 07528464350.