UN Convention

United Nations human rights convention and the UK Government's involvement

 

What is the Convention?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty that makes it clear that disabled people have, and should be able to enjoy, the same human rights as others. The Convention sets an internationally recognised benchmark for the human rights of disabled people against which countries, including the UK, will be measured.

The Convention also has an additional section called the Optional Protocol. This Protocol allows individuals who believe that their rights under the Convention have been breached to bring complaints to the UN Committee established to monitor the Convention. The Committee can also undertake enquiries into alleged grave or systematic violations of the Convention.

The Convention applies to all disabled people and covers all areas of life including access to justice, personal mobility, health, education, work and recreation.

The full text of the Convention and the Optional Protocol can be found on the United Nations Enable website.

What does the Convention mean to disabled people in the UK?

The UK ratified the Convention on 8 June 2009, and the Optional Protocol on 7 August 2009. More information on the background to the UK’s ratification can be found in the Explanatory Memorandum and Impact Assessments.

The Convention will be binding on the UK as a matter of international law. It will not form part of domestic law but it may have an interpretative influence in particular in human rights cases, and before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.

ODI coordinates implementation of the Convention across government. That means, for example, that we work with officials in other Government Departments and the Devolved Administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to help ensure they take the Convention into account in their policy making.

ODI also coordinates the writing of the report that the UK must send to the UN on what the UK has done to implement the Convention. This report must be submitted by July 2011.

We need your views

If you are a disabled person, or represent a disabled people's organisation, we are interested in your views. We would like to know how how disabled people and their organisations can be involved in implementing the Convention. If you have any other ideas about issues related to the Convention that you would like covered please let us know.

Send your views and questions on the Convention to odi.international@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.

Page last reviewed: 10 December 2009