Convention Campaign Coalition


‘RATIFICATION WITHOUT RESERVATION’


"At a meeting last week, called by the Office on Disability Issues, to discuss the Convention on Disability Rights, it became clear that, although Anne McGuire [Minister for Disabled People] was hoping that the UK would ratify the Convention by December 2008, support for such goals is not yet shared across Whitehall.

To ensure early – and full – ratification, many of us at that meeting believed it was vital for all interested organisations to join together to campaign for ratification without reservations.

Organisations that wish to join the campaign will need to confirm their acceptance of the criteria, below.

DAA has taken on the role of co-ordination but we hope that larger organisations will support the campaign through the provision of meeting space, campaign material and publicity.

This will be a coalition with the sole purpose of campaigning on UK ratification of the Disability Convention.

Experience has shown that it is important that those organisations putting their name to the campaign are prepared to support the mission statement, not only as part of this campaign but in their other spheres of operation.

Therefore, we must ask that, if you wish to join the campaign, that you are prepared to sign up to the mission statement.

Mission Statement


The aim of the campaign is to ensure that the UK Government ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities without reservation. We would rather that ratification was delayed rather than there was a public acknowledgement that, in some situations, the Government reserves the right to infringe disabled Britons’ human rights.

Human Rights are universal and indivisible. Ratification of this convention, whilst demanding duties and obligations on Member States, does recognise the need for progressive implementation. In the UK we already have the DDA and the Human Rights Act to support our rights as well as obligations under all the other international human rights instruments. It is our belief that reservations are an indication in themselves that the UK is prepared to continue to violate disabled people’s rights in certain areas of our lives.

Further rationale:
  • The government may argue that they can withdraw reservations when they are ready to do so. In fact this has not happened in relation to reservations on other UN conventions, i.e. the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  • The elaboration of this Convention was unique in having disabled people from all over the world fully involved in the process. As a result the Convention outlines precisely those areas that we know, from our direct experience, where we need protection from violations. Reserving on any of these areas indicates a disregard of the rights of disabled people.
  • Reserving on any part of the Convention is not compatible with the commitment of the UK Government to disability equality by the year 2025 or any of their commitments to human rights for all their citizens.
  • Political expediency may make reservations a way forward for early ratification – but for those of us who are committed to the full enjoyment of human rights for disabled people, reservations break the universality and indivisibility of the Convention. As supporters of human rights we cannot say that we will only support certain rights and not others!

What to do to join the Campaign


If you would like to join the campaign please send a copy of this statement back to DAA, signed by your CEO, and we will inform you as soon as possible of a date for a meeting – we hope this will be in January – time is of the essence.

If you feel that you can help in anyway – through provision of resources, please let us know."

Rachel Hurst
Director
Disability Awareness in Action

Postal address:
46 The Parklands
Hullavington
Wiltshire
SN14 6DL
United Kingdom

Telephone and fax: 01666 837 671

PLEASE NOTE: This information is provided as a service by the Human Rights & Disability web site; publication here should not be seen as expressing the views of the site owner.

All enquiries relating to the Campaign should be sent to Rachel Hurst, not this site.