Today Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations from across the UK came together to launch the next round of civil socety shadow reports under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. We are asking you to sign up in support of the Westminster shadow report.
All reports – covering issues within the remit of Westminster, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Welsh governments – will be sent to the UN Disability Committee to inform their next examination of the UK to monitor implementation of the Convention. This was originally scheduled to start in 2022 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
The launch of the reports are the culmination of six months of evidence gathering involving consultation events, a call for evidence and survey. Many thanks to everyone who contributed.
The Westminster report addresses a series of themes concerning implementation of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (CRDP) by Westminster Government. The themes were identified from evidence gathered within the earlier stages of our consultation process and then confirmed and enhanced through further consultation and data gathering.
The themes detailed within the report concern:
- Intersectionality: disadvantage and barriers are compounded, for example for Disabled women, Black DDP and DDP from racialised minorities, DDP who are LGBTQ+, asylum seekers, refugees or have No Recourse to Public Funds
- Continued retrogression: worse conditions across many aspects of DDP’s lives
- Institutionalisation: a specific aspect of retrogression that reinforces, and is underpinned by Theme 6 on our lives being undervalued
- Silencing DDP: the further marginalisation of DDP and our voices, in the face of continued retrogression
- Disaster Planning and Humanitarian Emergencies: failures to consider DDP in fundamental aspects of public policy development
- Lives less worthy: the response to the pandemic, and other policy responses that under value DDP’s lives
Key conclusions drawn from evidence across all themes are that:
- There has been continued regression since the last public examination of the UK under the CRDP in 2017
- Westminster Government has adopted progressive initiatives in discrete areas but has not addressed the fundamental issues affecting DDP’s lives
- The COVID-19 pandemic response discriminated against DDP 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
You can find the Westminster report here: Shadow report United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People Westminster Government Civil Society Shadow Report – Inclusion London
To sign up in support please go to: UNCRDP Westminster Government civil society shadow report sign up (google.com)
For reports covering issues within the remit of the devolved governments see:
Disability Action (Northern Ireland): www.disabilityaction.org
Disability Wales: www.disabiltywales.org
Inclusion Scotland: www.inclusionscotland.org