1 Introduction
1. We aim to report on all of the international instruments
with significant human rights implications which the UK has signed,
before ratification, and to monitor compliance with such instruments
after they come into force. On 4 January we published a report
on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
which the UK signed on 30 March 2007.[1]
We welcomed the Government's decision to sign the Convention,
which consolidates and confirms existing rights relating to disabled
people, and concluded that ratification "will send a strong
signal to all people with disabilities in the UK, and abroad,
that the Government takes equality and the protection of their
human rights seriously".[2]
2. We also called on the Government to sign and ratify
the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which establishes a monitoring
mechanism for the Convention and provides individuals with a right
of individual petition to the Committee on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, the body of experts appointed to interpret
the Convention. We recommended that the Government should sign
and ratify the Optional Protocol when ratifying the Convention.
The Government signed the Optional Protocol on 26 February.
In its reply to our report, the Government said it is now working
towards ratification, but have provided no timetable or further
details in relation to that work.[3]
The recently published Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual
Report on Human Rights 2008 sends a different message, noting
that Government departments are considering "whether or not
to ratify" the Optional Protocol.[4]
3. We welcome the Government's decision to sign
the Optional Protocol to the Convention and recommend that the
Government confirm its proposed timetable for ratification without
delay.
4. Our report was critical of what we saw as a lack
of transparency in the Government's progress towards ratification
which had "unfortunately alienated disabled people and their
organisations".[5]
We were particularly concerned that the Government was considering
making a significant number of reservations and interpretative
declarations on ratification but had decided not to make the draft
text of such statements available for scrutiny until the Convention
was formally laid before Parliament. We argued that the number
of reservations and interpretative declarations being considered
"may send a negative impression" to the other parties
to the Convention and to disabled people in the UK and that the
lack of transparency "undermines the previous role the UK
Government has played in championing equality for disabled people
and their leading role in negotiating the terms of the [Convention]".[6]
5. We received the Government's reply to our report
on 3 March and published it on 6 March.[7]
The Government also laid the Convention before Parliament on 3
March and published an explanatory memorandum setting out the
text of its four proposed reservations and single interpretative
declaration for the first time.[8]
6. We wrote to the Minister for Disabled People,
Jonathan Shaw MP, on 10 March, indicating that we intended to
scrutinise the proposed reservations and interpretative declaration
and requesting that the Government agree not to ratify the Convention
until at least the end of April, to give us time to publish a
report. He responded in a letter dated 23 March 2009, noting
our intention to produce a further report.[9]
We also published a call for evidence on the proposed reservations
and interpretative declaration, with a very tight deadline of
23 March. We are grateful to the individuals and organisations
who submitted written evidence.
1 First Report, 2008-09, The UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, HL Paper 9, HC 93 (hereafter
DRC Report). Back
2
Ibid., para 22. Back
3
Sixth Report, 2008-09, The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities: Government Response to the Committee's First
Report of Session 2008-09, HL Paper 46, HC 315 (hereafter
DRC Reply), para 18. Back
4
Cm 7557, FCO, Annual Report on Human Rights 2008, 30 March
2009, page 84. Back
5
Ibid., para 34. Back
6
Ibid., pars 34 and 49. Back
7
Sixth Report, 2008-09, The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities: Government Response to the Committee's First
Report of Session 2008-09, HL Paper 46, HC 315 (hereafter
DRC Reply). Back
8
Cm 7564 . Back
9
Letter from Jonathan Shaw MP to the Chair, dated 23 March 2009,
page 32, below. Back
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