Disability Equality Duty

Frequently asked questions about the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Disabled People

The ratification process

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After ratification

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So what happens next?

Easy Read versions of the Convention and its Optional Protocol

Easy read version of the UN Convention
Easy read version of the optional protocol

The ratification process

When will the UK ratify the UN Convention?

On 13 May 2009 Jonathan Shaw, the Minister for Disabled People, announced in a Ministerial Statement that Government is now finalising the processes to deposit the instrument of ratification for the Convention with the United Nations in New York, and aims to do this on the 8 June 2009. Read the minister's statement on ratification. (PDF, 20KB, 2 pages)

What will the UN Convention mean for disabled people?

The Convention is a powerful statement of the human rights of disabled people in the UK and internationally. While it does not confer new rights, it is an explicit statement that the estimated 650 million disabled people across the world have, and should enjoy, the same human rights as others.

It will not form part of UK domestic law but will set an internationally recognised benchmark for the human rights of disabled people against which members of the United Nations, including the UK, will be measured. This will help shape protection of disabled people's human rights for the future and ensure that disabled people can enjoy the human rights that non-disabled people already enjoy.

The Convention covers some matters which are within European Community competence, and others which are not. Once the Community has concluded (as ratification is called) the Convention will form part of the Community’s 'legal order' and as such will be binding on the Member States as a matter of Community law.

The Convention contains economic, social and cultural rights that are subject to progressive realisation, i.e. countries are not expected to be fully compliant at ratification but must be able to show that they are making good progress towards compliance, and civil and political rights, which come into force immediately.

Will the UK need to change existing legislation to allow ratification of the Convention?

As is the UK's usual practice in respect of international treaties, Government Departments and the Devolved Administrations have checked their legislation, policies, practices and procedures against the Convention's provisions to ensure that they are consistent.

This check has not identified any areas where the UK has felt it necessary to change its legislation, practices, policies and procedures in order to become compliant, except in respect of Article 12.4 which concerns safeguards for the exercise of substituted decision-making and includes a requirement for "regular review" by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body. There is currently no review system for Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appointees (i.e. people who are appointed to claim and collect benefits on behalf of another person due to that person's lack of physical or mental capacity). Those appointee arrangements are not at present subject to the safeguard of regular review, as the Government believes this Article requires. DWP is therefore actively working towards a proportionate system of review to address this issue.

The UK will be entering reservations and an interpretative declaration (as permitted by Article 46 of the Convention) in respect of Work and Employment (Convention Article 27 mainly); Education (Convention Article 24 Clause 2 (a) and 2 (b)); Equal Recognition Before the Law (Convention Article 12.4); and Liberty of Movement.

These reservations and interpretative declarations are felt necessary in order to enable the UK to ratify the Convention. They do not change any rights already existing under UK law.

We are aware that some disability organisations would like the UK to ratify the Convention without reservations. However, it is common for States to enter reservations to international human rights treaties and a number of States entered reservations and declarations to this Convention at signature. Entering reservations does not imply any lack of respect for human rights: in many cases States would not be in a position to ratify a treaty at all without entering a reservation. But all reservations must not be incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty and the Government has been mindful of this.

The reservations will be subject to periodic review, and when the Government reports to the UN on implementation of the Convention two years after ratification, this will include reporting on their continued need or otherwise. Where not required, they will be removed as has been made explicit in respect of arrangements for benefit appointees.

For a more detailed overview, see the UN Convention Explanatory Memorandum.

What is the European Community’s involvement with the Convention and how does this affect the UK's ratification?

The European Community is a signatory to the Convention and proposes to become a party to it, as a Regional Integration Organisation, within the areas of its competence, in accordance with Convention Article 44.

The Commission's proposals for conclusion are now the subject of discussion between the Commission and Member States. This may take some time. We do not, however, believe that progress on these negotiations need affect our own progress towards ratification.

When will the UK ratify the Convention's Optional Protocol?

The Optional Protocol is supplementary to the Convention and establishes two additional procedures in respect of implementation and monitoring of the Convention itself.

The first is a procedural avenue that will allow individuals or groups of individuals to bring petitions to the UN Committee that has been established to monitor implementation of the Convention, where they believe that their rights under the Convention have been breached, and when all national routes of complaint have been exhausted.
The second is an inquiry procedure giving the Committee authority to undertake inquiries when reliable information is received into allegations of grave or systematic violations of Convention rights.

The UK signed the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People on 26 February.

We will be following the necessary Parliamentary processes for ratification of the Optional Protocol in order to ratify at the earliest opportunity.

The decision to sign this Optional Protocol does not set a precedent for future similar individual complaints mechanisms. These will continue to be considered on their merits on a case by case basis.

Next steps

So what happens after ratification?

There are already a lot of initiatives in train across Government which will help to implement the Convention including the Independent Living Strategy, Valuing People Now, Putting People First and Right to Control.

We now want to explore with Disabled People and their organisations what their hopes are from implementation of Convention.

How should disabled people and their organisations be involved in implementation, including reporting and monitoring?
What should be done to raise awareness of the Convention amongst disabled people and others? Clearly there is a role for Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commissions in doing this, but what will disabled people and their organisations be doing?

We will also establish an ongoing dialogue with

the UK's Equality And Human Rights Commissions (EHRC)
the Devolved Administrations
within Government Departments about policies and future plans in the light of the Convention

We will also be promoting, protecting and monitoring implementation in a number of ways by

developing polices which are in line with the Convention's expectations (for example, the Right to Control and the Independent Living Strategy)
gathering statistics and conducting research to enable Government to evaluate policy and implementation
reporting to the UN on UK progress on implementation of the Convention.

More information about the Convention can be found on the UN Enable website.