Government signs up to UN convention on rights of disabled people
Disabled people will have the opportunity to take their case to the UN if they feel their rights have been breached, following the Government’s announcement that it has committed to signing the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People. The Convention is designed to promote, protect and ensure the human rights freedoms and dignity of disabled people.
In making the announcement, Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People at the Department for Work And Pensions said “This is a further demonstration of our commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, and to the principle of ensuring that disabled people can enjoy their human rights on an equal basis with non-disabled people.”
The Convention is designed to promote, protect and ensure the human rights freedoms and dignity of disabled people. This Convention explicitly sets out the rights that disabled people have and should be able to enjoy on the same basis as other people – for example, the right to dignity, freedom, equality and justice. It also provides direction on how human rights should be interpreted from the perspective of disabled people all over the world.
The Optional Protocol establishes two additional procedures in respect of implementation and monitoring of the Convention. This includes an avenue that will enable individuals, who feel their rights have been breached, to bring petitions to the UN Committee, set up to monitor implementation of the Convention. Parliamentary processes for ratification of the Convention will start soon with the aim of ratifying the Convention in the Spring.
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