These Are Your Rights!

Dear readers,

This week, I have been delving back into a bit of academic reading. I recently re-joined my old library at the University of Strathclyde, and while the benefits of an alumni membership are limited, I have enjoyed revisiting both the building and the many written works within.

In particular, I’ve been revisiting my former subject of Human Rights. I studied Human Rights Law at Strathclyde, and loved every minute of it. Every lesson was fascinating, and allowed me to develop my passion for human rights and social justice, while challenging my pre-existing beliefs and biases. The best thing about the course was my dissertation, which, while stressful, allowed me to explore a topic of my choice. I chose to focus on the rights of disabled people, with a particular focus on the UK’s implementation of Article 23 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Have I lost you yet? That’s ok; let’s backtrack.

The story of formal, international human rights law begins in the aftermath of World War Two. As international leaders discovered the true extent of the horrors committed by the Nazis, they realised that they had to find a way to prevent these crimes from ever happening again. This is where the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights comes in. This was an aspirational document written in 1948 (not a law, but more of a statement of intent) which expressed the fundamental rights that each human being is believed to possess.

It took another couple of decades for these rights to be ratified as law. This occurred in 1966, when the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, were created. These documents essentially split the Declaration into two parts, splitting types of rights into civil/political (such as the right to vote or have freedom of speech) and socioeconomic (such as the right to healthcare, housing and water.) Both these Covenants are supposed to be valued equally, and governments are obliged to follow them.

So where does disability come in? Well, a few decades after the International Covenants were ratified, the UN and various human rights organisations realised that some people were being left behind. Some people’s human rights were improving as governments fell in line with the Conventions, and others were not. Disabled people were found to be among the most vulnerable, whose rights were still being at best ignored, and at worst grossly violated. Governments were making the excuse that they didn’t understand how to implement the rights in the context of disabled people’s lives. Some claimed that special exemptions should be made to allow them to have more control over disabled people’s lives than others, because… reasons. Meanwhile, disabled people’s lives weren’t getting any better.

Finally, after a long process of consultation with academics, human rights organisations and disabled people themselves, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was created and ratified in 2006. This document basically strips away any of the excuses which governments made, by laying out exactly how our rights can be realised, and outlawing many specific practices which harmed us. For example, Article 23 focuses on family rights, and outlaws the shockingly common practice of forcibly sterilising disabled people to prevent us from having children. I focused specifically on this for my dissertation after reading a harrowing news story about a disabled woman who was forcibly sterilised. In the UK. In 2015.

If you are disabled or chronically ill, I highly recommend that you read the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It’s long. It’s full of pretty dense legal language. But it’s worth it, to get a sense of what your rights are. My passion for human rights has led me to develop a deeper understanding of what my own rights are as a disabled person, and continues to empower me to stand up for myself. If you aren’t being treated fairly, don’t just put up with it. Have a look at the Convention, which is widely available online, and get to know your rights!

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca