Links

Understanding human rights

The Human Rights Defender Manual, available on the Australasian Legal Information Institute web site, is an excellent resource for any visitor who wants to gain a practical understanding of human rights and their protection.

The UN Enable web site provides an excellent Overview of International Legal Frameworks for Disability Legislation.

The BBC World Service has a fascinating resource on human rights: 'I have a right to...' that includes case studies and information about specific human rights issues. The front page of 'I have a right to...' can be reached by following this link.

UK organisations

Black Information Link
The 1990 Trust - Human Rights for Race Equality

Carers UK
"Carers UK is the voice of carers. Carers provide unpaid care by looking after an ill, frail or disabled family member, friend or partner.

Carers give so much to society yet as a consequence of caring, they experience ill health, poverty and discrimination.

Carers UK is an organisation of carers fighting to end this injustice. We will not stop until people recognise the true value of carers’ contribution to society and carers get the practical, financial and emotional support they need."

Disability Alliance
"Disability Alliance is a national registered charity with the principal aim of relieving the poverty and improving the living standards of disabled people. Our eventual aim is to break the link between poverty and disability."

Disability Awareness in Action [DAA]
An international disability and human rights network that provides a wealth of useful information.

Equalities National Council
"Equalities is the emerging National Council of Disabled People, Carers and those with long term Impairments from Black & Minority Communities. Equalities is an independent Enterprise which is run by its service users, who all have a good understanding of the barriers disabled people and carers from our communities experience when trying to get the help and support we feel we are in need of."


Equal Rights Trust
"The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) is an independent organisation whose purpose is to combat discrimination and promote equality as a fundamental human right and a basic principle of social justice. Established as an advocacy organisation, a resource centre and a think tank, it focuses on the complex and complementary relationship between the different forms of discrimination, developing strategies for translating the principle of equality into practice."


National Centre for Independent Living
"This website is designed to be a resource on independent living, direct payments and individual budgets for disabled people and others working in the field who may find it useful."

Royal National Institute of Blind People
"We are the UK's leading charity offering information, support and advice to over two million people with sight loss."

RNID
"We're the charity working to change the world for the UK's 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people."

Scope
About: "... the disability organisation in England and Wales whose focus is people with cerebral palsy. Our aim is that disabled people achieve equality: a society in which they are as valued and have the same human and civil rights as everyone else."

The United Kingdom's Disabled People's Council (UKDPC)
"The United Kingdom's Disabled People's Council is the UK's national organisation of the worldwide Disabled People's Movement. We were set up in 1981 by disabled people to promote our full equality and participation in UK society, and we now represent some 70 groups run by disabled people in the UK at national level."
 

European organisations

European Disability Forum (EDF)
“EDF is a European umbrella organisation representing more than 50 million disabled people in Europe. Its mission is to ensure disabled citizens' full access to fundamental and human rights through their active involvement in policy development and implementation in the European Union.”
 
European Network on Independent Living
Purpose: 'to build and co-ordinate a European Network on Independent Living.'
 

International organisations

Disabled Peoples' International
Mandate: '... a network of national organizations or assemblies of disabled people, established to promote human rights of disabled people through full participation, equalization of opportunity and development.'
 
Mindfreedom
"MFI is an independent non-profit coalition defending human rights and promoting humane alternatives in mental health. While the majority of MFI members have personally experienced mental health system abuse, membership is open to all who support these goals."

World Blind Union
“The World Blind Union (WBU) is the only organisation entitled to speak on behalf of blind and partially sighted persons of the world, representing 162 million blind and visually impaired persons from about 600 different organisations in 158 countries.”

World Federation of the Deaf
“Established in Rome, Italy, in 1951, WFD is an international, non-governmental central organisation of national associations of Deaf people, with a current membership of associations in 127 countries worldwide...”

World Federation of the Deafblind
“The aim of WFDB is to improve the quality of life of deafblind people world wide and one of the most important activities undertaken by WFDB is to identify deafblind people in order to break their isolation. WFDB also aims at spreading information about deafblindness and about the kind of service deafblind people need in order to live independent lives. In addition, WFDB strives to have deafblindness acknowledged internationally as a unique disability.”

World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
“The purpose of WNUSP is to be a global forum and voice of users and survivors of psychiatry, to promote their rights and interests.”

Academic

Disability Archive UK
An excellent archive of disability related articles by British academics and activists, provided by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds.
 

Education

Alliance for Inclusive Education
“We are a national network of individuals, families and groups who work together to help change our education system. The changes we wish to bring about are based on our conviction that all young people need to be educated in a single mainstream education system which can support all young people to learn, play and live with each other.”

Health care

Project London
"Médecins du Monde is an international humanitarian aid organisation that recruits medical and non-medical volunteers, who provide healthcare for vulnerable populations around the world."  

The organisation now provides healthcare in London (see report on Project London on the 'Relevant studies and reports' page of this site).”
 

Right to life

ALERT

“The aim of ALERT is to warn people of the dangers of any type of euthanasia legislation and pro-death initiatives. These include the promotion of Living Wills and Advance Directives, which create a climate for the acceptance of euthanasia.

ALERT was founded in December 1991 to provide well-documented information on these and related issues, and to defend the lives and rights of the medically vulnerable, recognising that all human beings are of equal value.”

Care Not Killing 
“Care NOT Killing is a UK-based alliance of individuals and organisations which brings together human rights groups, healthcare groups, palliative care groups and faith-based organisations with the aims of:

1. Promoting more and better palliative care
2. Ensuring that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed during the lifetime of the current Parliament
3. Influencing the balance of public opinion further against any weakening of the law”.

Doctors and Ethics - Newsletter of the British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life 
UK-based online newsletter that highlights right to life and patient rights issues.

Hospice Patients Alliance 
“The Hospice Patients Alliance was formed in August of 1998 as a non-profit charitable organization and is a 501(c)(3) corporation serving the general public throughout the United States. We were formed by experienced hospice staff and other health care professionals who saw that hospices were not always complying with the standards of care, and in fact, were in some cases, violating the rights of patients and families and exploiting them for financial gain, or not providing adequate care to control pain or other distressing symptoms during the end of life period.”

Not Dead Yet 
“Since 1983, many people with disabilities have opposed the assisted suicide and euthanasia movement. Though often described as compassionate, legalized medical killing is really about a deadly double standard for people with severe disabilities, including both conditions that are labelled terminal and those that are not. Disability opposition to this ultimate form of discrimination has been ignored by most media and courts, but countless people with disabilities have already died before their time. For some, a disabled person's suicidal cry for help was ignored, misinterpreted, or even exploited by the right-to-die movement. For others, death came at the request of a family member or other health care surrogate. This is not compassion, it's contempt.”

Wesley Smith 
“This WEB log considers issues involving assisted suicide/euthanasia, bioethics, human cloning, biotechnology, and the dangers of animal rights/liberation. My views expressed here, as in my books and other writings, reflect my understanding that the philosophy of human exceptionalism is the bedrock of universal human rights. Or, to put it another way: human life matters.”
 

UK Government

Directgov
"Public services all in one place"

An excellent resource about all things government in the UK - local government, guide to government, disability, you name it, if the Government is involved, this is a good place to begin any search for information.

Office for Disability Issues
“The Office for Disability Issues is the focal point within government to co-ordinate disability policy across all departments and take forward the Life Chances Report to ensure robust implementation of its recommendations.” 

Department for Work and Pensions 
“The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is here to:
▪ promote opportunity and independence for all
▪ help individuals achieve their potential through employment
▪ work to end poverty in all its forms.”
Department for International Development
"Leading the British Government's fight against world poverty"

 Department of Health
"Providing health and social care policy, guidance and publications".

Foreign and Commonwealth Office
"The purpose of the FCO is to work for UK interests in a safe, just and prosperous world. We do this with some 16,000 staff, based in the UK and our overseas network of over 200 diplomatic offices." Human rights are a key part of FCO's work.

Ministry of Justice
Has responsibility for human rights in the UK - and so much more.

UN Agencies

International Human Rights Instruments - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 
An extremely useful list of international human rights instruments.

United Nations Enable
A superb disability and human rights resource provided by the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which 'is the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability.'

'Human Rights & Disability' is not responsible for the content of sites referred to on this page and inclusion on the page should not be viewed as an endorsement of any organisation or its policies and programmes.

This web site aims to provide a resource to disabled people and our allies, so the only issue of concern in providing these links is: do the sites provide a resource for disabled people?