A UN committee pulled no punches when it reviewed the UK’s first report under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the end of August. After hearing from representatives of Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) and questioning the official UK delegation, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, sitting in Geneva, delivered a blistering report that Kamran Mallick, the CEO of Disability Rights UK described as “A grim reality check for the UK government and its record on ensuring the rights of disabled people”.
In its Concluding Observations/Report the Committee issued the largest number of recommendations they have made to any country. They were particularly concerned about “the impact of austerity measures … as a consequence of the financial crisis in 2008/2009 which resulted in severe negative economic restraints among persons with disabilities … in particular among families with children with disabilities, including increased reliance on food banks”.
The Committee had already held a separate investigation last year into the effect of social welfare and other cutbacks in the UK on persons with disabilities. At the closing session of the UK hearing, the Committee chairperson Theresia Degener used unusually strong language, saying that the evidence from their 2016 investigation and the Geneva hearing revealed that the spending cuts had led “to human catastrophe in your country, totally neglecting the vulnerable situation people with disabilities find themselves in”.
The Committee’s Concluding Observations, which dealt with the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, called for action to eliminate the higher levels of poverty affecting children, women and members of black and ethnic minorities with disabilities; to end discrimination against disabled persons; and to make accommodations that would allow them to work and to play a full part in social life.
There were also calls for an end to involuntary detention of persons on the basis of actual or perceived impairment, the use of tasers or other restraints on such persons, and the prevalence of substituted decision making for people with intellectual disabilities or other perceived impairment. The report called for an effective programme for the de-institutionalisation of person with disabilities but strongly criticised the inadequate resources allocated to support people to live independently in the community.
The Concluding Observations were not all negative. There was acknowledgement of some positive developments, mainly in Scotland and Wales, though they found little to praise in Northern Ireland and strongly criticised the use of non-consensual electro-convulsive therapy there and inadequate protection against disability-based discrimination.
Throughout the report, it called for the UK authorities to work closely with DPOs and during the hearing, Committee members also praised the very comprehensive briefings they had received from DPOs, including Disability Action Northern Ireland.
It is clear from the Concluding Observations about the UK and about other countries that the UN CRPD Committee is now setting out international standards for enlightened and inclusive disability policies.
It is all the more disappointing that Ireland is now the only EU country and one of the only countries in the world that has so far failed to ratify the Disabilities Convention. Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath promised last year that the Convention would be ratified by Christmas. That date has come and gone and so far the Dail has not even begun to debate a Bill that the Government claim is necessary before ratification. As a result we risk falling further and further behind those countries that have agreed to live up to the developing international standards in relation to persons with disabilities and to submit to the guidance and advice of the internationally recognised body that sets those standards.
The Jury is Out
The CRPD Committee’s Concluding Observations on the UK recommended that the authorities there “enable in particular deaf persons through the use of sign language interpreters to fully and equally participate as jurors in court proceedings”.
The Committee said the same thing when deciding on two individual complaints against Australia last year and it is clear that this is now the developing international norm. Meanwhile, despite positive decisions in cases taken by FLAC in the High Court here in 2010, no deaf person has yet been allowed to serve on an Irish jury.
When Ireland eventually ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, deaf persons will have to be allowed to serve on juries. Why not go ahead and make provision for this now?