Passle Series: Disability rights in the UK under CRPD scrutiny

Doughty Street's Community Care and Health Team brings you expert analysis on the state of disability rights in the UK, as the UK prepares for the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' periodic examination of how well - or how poorly - the country is complying with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In a series of Passle posts, we will consider the problems affecting disabled people across the UK and the topics the Committee is likely to consider.

The CRPD's disability rights review

Hot on the heels of the Committee's unprecedented inquiry under the Optional Protocol to the CRPD, which reported as recently as October 2016 on the cumulative impact of policies on social security, work and employment, the Committee will in 2017 have the opportunity to look at disability rights across the board - from laws on mental capacity to access to transport, from bullying, abuse and neglect to inappropriate housing, adult social care and education, and the potential impact of plans for repeal of the Human Rights Act and Brexit.

UK Independent Mechanism Submission

In preparation for the Committee, the UK's Independent Mechanism under CRPD Article 33 (comprised of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission) has identified fourteen themes and suggested information that the Committee might want to request from the UK and devolved governments:

• Enhancing the status of the CRPD in domestic law
• Equality and non-discrimination
• Awareness-raising
• Accessibility
• Independent and adequate standard of living and social protection
• Employment
• Access to justice
• Education
• Health and life
• Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse
• Autonomy and integrity, including restraint
• Participation in political and public life
• Statistics and data collection
• National implementation and monitoring.

Alternative Report on Great Britain

Disability Rights UK, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales have also published an Alternative Report - Great Britain, to inform the Committee's work.

Will the CRPD Committee reach a similar conclusion to that of October 2016, when it found that: