UKIM Briefing - Westminster Hall Debate -Government's response to UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities report

The UKIM comprises the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI), the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC). UKIM is tasked with promoting, protecting and monitoring implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

UKIM’s key concerns set out in the briefing include:

• To date, the UK Government has not made any commitment to implementing the UN Committee’s recommendations in 2017 on the steps it needs to take to comply with the UN Convention, including those related to social security reforms. It also rejected the UN Committee’s recommendations on social security reform in its 2016 inquiry report.
• However, extensive evidence shows that disabled people continue to face serious regression of their rights to an adequate standard of living and social protection, and to live independently in the community.
• Continued lack of action from the UK Government on the UN Committee’s recommendations goes against the UK Government’s stated commitments to equality and inclusion for disabled people, and undermines its position as a global leader on disability rights.

In this briefing, UKIM recommends that the UK Government:

• Sets out how it plans to comprehensively address the UN Committee’s recommendations, including those related to social security.
• Clarifies whether the new Inter-Ministerial Group on Disability and Society will be the vehicle through which the UK Government will take forward the UN Committee’s recommendations; how it will relate to devolved governments; and how it will work with disabled people’s organisations and UKIM.

The briefing is available online here.