The UN Inquiry and UN visit to UK to examine the
grave and systematic violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was initiated by DPAC.
This inquiry is the first of its kind-it has great
historic importance. It means the UN will examine the vicious and
punitive attacks on disabled people’s independent living as well as the
cuts which have seen so many placed in inhuman circumstances and has led
to unnecessary deaths.
In May 2013, after 3 years of onslaught against
disabled people by the Condem government, DPAC made a formal submission
under the CRPD Optional Protocol which establishes an individual
complaints mechanism for the Convention.
There was less information and statistics than now on
the impact of the Welfare Reform and loss of a right to independent
living on disabled people. However the evidence DPAC presented to the
CRPD Committee was extremely strong
DPAC’s evidence presented the regression of disabled
people’s convention rights and the grave and systematic violations of
disabled people’s rights under the UNCRPD. It was accepted by the UNCRPD
Committee.
After an initial response from the government
responding point by point to the DPAC submission, DPAC made a second
submission, supported by further evidence of the disproportionate impact
of all cuts on disabled people.
This submission, as the first one, included,
-
the failings of the Work Capability Assessment,
-
the bedroom tax,
-
the closure of the Independent Living Fund
-
the unwillingness of the government to make an assessment of the cumulative impact of the Welfare Reform on disabled people
-
its reluctance to monitor what was happening to disabled people who were found fit for work after an assessment and who lost their only means of support (see complete list)i,.
This submission was partly based on firmly sourced
statistical and other factual evidence, and also on the hundreds of
personal testimonies that DPAC has received from individuals who have
been affected adversely by the governments’ welfare reforms.
The UK government sent a second response to the UN
about DPAC’s submission but by then the CRPD Committee had decided that
there was enough evidence to open an inquiry into the violations of
disabled people’s rights by the UK government.
The Committee also told DPAC that the inquiry was
totally confidential and could be jeopardised and called off if any news
of an UN inquiry was leaked.
It was the indiscretion of an ex-member of the CRPD
Committee which brought the inquiry into the open, but DPAC kept its
side of the non-disclosure agreement. The further leak in newspapers on
Sunday 30th August convinced us that disabled people needed to know the
full extent of the process
This inquiry is an unprecedented move and unchartered territory for the UNCRPD Committee.
It is also another route of hope for disabled people
who have been abused by the UK government, ignored by most of the
opposition and betrayed by the big Disability Charities.