The wrong rights stuff

Six months ago, the annual report of the Office for Disability Issues made hopeful noises about the UK’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ian Macrae finds that the real picture is less rosy

At the end of last year, the annual report of the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) quoted minister for disabled people Anne McGuire’s intention to push the government to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the end of 2008.

In early May, the minister put out a statement giving more detail of what ratification will actually mean.

That statement left activists, particularly those who’ve formed the UN Convention Campaign Coalition, less than thrilled.

The coalition, made up of 22 disabled people’s organisations and other disability groups, demands ratification without reservation. Ms McGuire’s statement falls short of that.

Ratification in full would mean that the government fully accepts the basic inalienable rights of disabled people.

But more importantly, ratification in full represents a commitment to those rights being enshrined in UK legislation.

Conversely, reserving on particular areas of the convention means that the government can hold off from committing to rights in those areas because, for example, they’re seen as being against the national – or government’s – interests.

Activists, on the other hand, see reservations as being against the interests – not to say the equality – of disabled people.

In the past, the government has held off ratifying other conventions until it was sure that the UK was compliant with them. And with the convention on disabled people’s rights it has stayed true to form.

This, however, appears to involve some doublethink.

On the one hand, Anne McGuire’s statement says it won’t ratify until compliance is assured; on the other hand, she sets out those areas the government feels unable to comply with and on which it will therefore reserve.

One central clash between what the government sees as possible and the demands of disabled activists occurs over education.

The government statement says: “There is a need to recognise that the general education system in the UK includes a range of provision, including mainstream and special schools, and that there will also need to be a reservation in respect of disabled children whose needs are best met through specialist provision, which may be some way from
their home.”

The right to mainstream education is, of course, a central plank in the disability equality agenda.

Similarly, with regard to independent living, Anne McGuire says that the government is still considering whether reservation is required on the convention article relating to freedom of choice of place of residence. This, the coalition says, represents an on-going commitment to institutionalisation of disabled people.

The coalition summed up its view on the statement by saying: “The UK government is saying loud and clear that there are certain violations against disabled people that it should be allowed to perpetrate for ever.”