UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities publishes issues to present to UK Government
UNCPRD CRPD/C/GBR/Q/1 29 March 2017: List of issues in relation to the initial report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
A list of 30 questions on a wide range of human rights include:
Children with disabilities (art. 7)
4. Please inform on the following:
(a) Steps taken to address the higher level of poverty among families with children with disabilities;
(b) Steps taken to monitor and remedies against disability-related discrimination and/or harassment in all schools regarding compensation and injunctive relief; and
(c) How children with disabilities and their families are included in decision-making regarding assessment and allocation of their support.
Awareness Raising (art. 8)
5. Please inform on measures taken by the State and the devolved governments to address prejudices and negative attitudes against persons with disabilities in particular persons with neurological conditions such as ‘dementia’ and with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities.
Living independently and being included in the community (art. 19)
14. Please inform on the following:
(a) Measures to ensure that the right to living independently in all its forms regardless of where and with whom one lives, and to be included in the community is recognised as a statutory right;
(b) How persons with disabilities can claim protection of their right to independent living;
(c) How the State party calculate the costs of independent living vis-à-vis institutionalization of persons with disabilities; and
(d) Measures implemented by each of the devolved governments and in overseas territories to ensure access to and sufficient budget allocations for independent living.
15. Please inform on legal initiatives taken to maintain existing and establish new options of support services that allow children, teenagers, adults and elderly persons with disabilities to live included and independent within a house/apartment of personal choice, and participate spontaneously within the community.
16. Please report on how devolved authorities ensure support for independent living for persons with disabilities, including personal assistance and accompanying persons
Work and employment (art. 27)
20. Please report on measures, including specified targets to ensure non-discrimination, affirmative action and reasonable accommodation at the workplace, in accordance with European Union regulations to reduce unemployment among persons with disabilities. Please indicate how development is monitored, measured and non-compliance sanctioned.
21. Please inform on how the pay gap for work of equal value among persons with and without disabilities are measured and eliminated in accordance with target 8.5 of Sustainable Development Goals.
Adequate standard of living and social protection (art. 28)
22. Please inform on measures to monitor and address the impact on adequate standard of living of the welfare reform and anti-poverty initiatives towards persons with disabilities and their families, including the consequences on disability-related costs, following the financial crisis in 2008.
23. Please inform about measures taken by the State party and its devolved governments to:
(a) Address poverty among persons with disabilities and the outcomes of strategies to combat poverty;
(b) Monitor the impact of the welfare reforms and tax policies regarding persons with disabilities, including cumulative impact of individual policies;
(c) Ensure equal access to social support in all its forms by persons with disabilities irrespective of their impairment, level of support required, gender, age, social background, ethnicity, migrant, asylum seeker or refugee status;
(d) Ensure support to persons with disabilities in the exercise of their parental responsibilities, parents of children with disabilities, and others; and
(e) Ensure that work capability assessments are individualised and based on the human rights model of disability and not on the type of impairment
Disability news service blog post, by John Pring, 6 April 2017: Concern over UN’s ‘silence’ on benefit-related deaths
The UK and devolved governments will now be expected to respond to the list, while disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and other bodies, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, can also submit their responses to the committee.
