UN Disability Committee hearing:
Tory Government guilty of systematic discrimination against disabled people in the UK
Tory governments since 2010 have launched attacks on disabled people’s living standards, human rights and independent living. This has gone against the obligations which the UK has under the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. Their failure to implement these rights has led to the UK being the first country to be investigated by the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRDP) for violating this Convention.
In 2016 the UN Disability Committee investigated the issue and produce a report which declared that “grave and systematic” rights violations had taken place against disabled people by the UK government.
Since 2017 the UK government has had to go to the UN to give updates on its progress. A coalition of UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations submitted a report to the UN in 2023 saying that not enough has been done, and that disabled people have even fewer rights than before. They are calling on the British government to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into UK legislation to give disabled people access to their rights.
On Monday 18 March the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled Persons with Disabilities held a follow up session to its 2016 report. The UK Tory government submitted evidence which made all sorts of outrageous claims that it had and was making improvements to the lives of disabled people across the issues of independent living, enabling more disabled people to get into work and helping disabled people with its reforms to benefits.
The reality of life for disabled people is quite the opposite to these Tory falsehoods.
The Tory government’s submission to the session was challenged by several UN members of the UN Disability Committee.
The vice chair R. Kays slammed the Tory government for cuts to disability benefits, its dire lack of support to enable independent living and its failure to consult properly with Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations. She criticised the Tory ‘reforms’ to disability benefits which were punitive and coercive and “not suitable to enable disabled people to be job ready.’’ She went on to lambast the government for using “divisive rhetoric’’ which in effect portrays disabled people as scivers and fraudsters which has had the effect of encouraging hate crimes and widespread stigma against disabled people.
Another UN Rapporteur Laverne Jacobs stated that there are repeated patterns of disabled people committing suicide due to benefit sanctions. She singled out punitive work capability assessments for leading to hundreds of disabled people killing themselves.
The Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations which submitted evidence to the UN committee hearing made the following observation:
Continued cuts to support for disabled people living in the community have led to us becoming segregated away from society from within their own homes.
While being included in the community is much more than social care it is the crisis in social care which dominates lives. It is the major factor that is killing disabled people disproportionately to the rest of the UK population.
Disabled people are dying on waiting lists: either waiting to be assessed or waiting for services. These deaths are caused by ongoing cuts to state support over the last 13 years. According to Age UK 28,890 older disabled people died in 2021/22, the latest year for which figures are available, without ever receiving the care and support they were waiting for. This equates to 79 deaths a day, 554 a week, 2,408 a month.
They went on to note that further austerity measures carried out by local councils threaten to greatly worsen this terrible situation,
Local authorities are planning another £2.5 billion cuts over next 2 years including social care cuts of £467 million, which will exacerbate this already dire situation.
The UK Government signed and ratified the CRPD in 2008. Successive governments, both Labour and Tory, have failed to incorporate its articles into British law, leaving its implementation trapped on paper. A big step forward would be for the rights enshrined in the UN Disability Convention to passed into UK law with properly resourced and independent monitoring.
Sadly, it appears that this current Tory government and the Starmer led Labour Party are only committed to paying lip service to improving the lives of disabled people in the UK. A good example of this is their joint position on disability benefits. Both are fully committed to the DWP’s war on disabled people claiming benefits which will tragically lead to more unnecessary suicides.
Only by abolishing this barbarous system can the lives of disabled people be fully met where they can live lives. Lives full and active, free from fear, stigma and systematic discrimination.
