2017 is a significant year for disabled people in the UK. Primarily, this is due to the United Nations investigation into the UK and devolved Governments on their compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The Convention sets out the human rights of all disabled people. Those countries who have ratified the Convention, as the UK did in 2009, are expected to report on the implementation and progress of disabled people’s rights every four years to the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled People. Â
The current Investigation is the first that the UK and devolved governments have been subject to. This was delayed due to the Committee pausing the process to conduct an Inquiry into human rights violations resulting from austerity policies and welfare reform. In the context of the current Investigation, it is critical to note that the Committee reported that they have concerns regarding the “grave and systemic” human rights violations of these policies. The UK Government has dismissed the findings of the Committee and continue to progress with these regressive and damaging policies and spending cuts. In context, these policies are killing people. This is the first time that the Committee have Investigated a state that has previously been found to be violating the Convention.
Brexit and our human rights
The second reason to be paying attention to the process of upholding disabled people’s human rights is Brexit. Now officially underway, the implications of Brexit on the rights of disabled people in the UK are huge. Many of our rights and protections result from European legislation. The Prime Minister’s views on scrapping the Human Rights Act are well known. What a replacement Bill of Rights might look like is not clear. Progressive sections of the Equality Act 2010 have already been repealed, immense funding and staffing cuts have been enforced on our Human Rights watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Disastrous cuts to funding have depleted the capacity of Disabled People’s Organisations to campaign and represent on the issues that are increasingly trampling on the rights of disabled people, creating further oppression and marginalisation.
Few are paying attention to this outside of the disability movement itself. The process and implications have been so foggy that attempting to formulate a view on the potential outcomes of Brexit for disabled people has in itself amounted to little more than the disability movement expressing concern that this could be really bad for us. There’s been no clarity. Details will begin emerging soon and we need to be ready for a fight. Every tool at our disposal must be used to protect our rights and our place in society.
This is why it is imperative that we engage politically with the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The Committee has been overwhelmed with evidence from disabled people and their organisations across the UK. Yet, it still feels as though it isn’t enough.  The UK Government must be made to listen and to act. They cannot continue to dismiss the effect of austerity on the section of society that arguably has the least agency to defend itself. Whilst falsely framing austerity policies with a narrative of support for those who need it, coupled with individual responsibility for improving outcomes, the reality of impact has become invisible. Disabled people have become invisible.
The absorption of disability into the health and well being agenda serves to individualise and depoliticise disability. This is most notable in the recent Green Paper on tackling the disability employment gap.
Disability is not a health issue, it is a human rights issue. By reducing disability to a health issue that individuals are responsible for, the UK Government has neatly side-stepped society’s responsibly for eliminating discrimination and tackling the environmental and attitudinal barriers that prevent disabled people from participating on an equal level in all areas of life.
To change policy and to shift the mindsets of politicians and decision makers, we have to be political. We need to recognise and utilise our collective power. Disabled people must stand in solidarity with each other before we can expect the rest of society to demonstrate solidarity with us.
Standing in the Bond-esque setting of the United Nations, I felt a great deal of hope in the power of people to little by little change the world. Disabled people in the UK are faced by one of the biggest threats to our rights in quite some time. We are experiencing the damaging impact of regressive policies. In a short few months of consulting with disabled people, speaking to colleagues across the movement, listening to case studies, and reflecting on my own lived experience, the genuine horrors emerging break my heart. That heartbreak also drives an anger and passion to move the fight forward.
Disabled people are people. Yet our place as equal citizens is not respected. As people, we are not valued. Our deaths at the hands of the state are covered up, or not investigated at all. This is why I was at the United Nations Human Rights Council to document the work being done by disability activists to protect our rights.
Two days of intense meetings culminated in a professional, united and robust session delivering our evidence to the UN Committee. It wasn’t a certainty that we’d achieve that. United by a common purpose, differences were placed aside and spoke together with a strength that we can all be proud of.
New relationships have been forged, we’ve all gained a tremendous insight into the workings of the Committee. It is now incumbent upon us to build on this. I have immense respect for the passion and expertise of my fellow activists. This detail of knowledge of how legislature links to the reality of people’s lives has been crucial in our quest to persuade the Committee to voice our concerns to our Governments.
Our next challenge rests in persuading disabled people to engage in understanding and demanding their rights. Policies are designed to isolate us and reduce our collective and political strength. We have to take that control back.
The long term job of scrutinising the actions of Government will hold more power if disabled people at every level know they have a voice, and use it. In Geneva I truly believe we set the foundations for a resurgence of disability activism.
We are literally fighting for our lives.
