United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention) is the first international human rights convention of the 21st Century.

The Convention makes it clear that persons with disabilities are holders of rights and not recipients of welfare. It spells out what should be done to break down the barriers which people with long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments may face in realising their human rights.  The UK, including Scotland, has been a party to the Convention since 2009. Scotland therefore has clear duties to promote, protect and ensure the human rights of people with disabilities.

You can read the Convention here

The Convention includes human rights across all areas of disabled people’s lives, for example:

• people with disabilities have the right to make their own decisions in all areas of life, on the same basis as other people and there are duties to provide the support people need to exercise that capacity

• decisions should only be made on behalf of people with disabilities where necessary, and with appropriate safeguards

• people with disabilities should have real and effective access to justice (as participants in the justice system, as victims of crime or human rights abuses, as witnesses and on juries etc)

• people with disabilities have the right to live independently and be included in the community (the right to choose where to live and who to live with and not to be unlawfully forced into a particular living arrangement)

• people with disabilities have the right to personal mobility

• people with disabilities also have the full range of economic, social and cultural rights – such as the right to adequate housing, or the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; as well as civil and political rights – such as the right to freedom from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence

Although the Convention does not form part of domestic law, it can be used to help understand the

rights in the Human Rights Act with respect to people with disabilities. It is also a legally binding international benchmark for the realisation of the rights of persons with disabilities. Ultimately, rights are promoted, protected and ensured through being used, which requires empowerment, ability and accountability. In Scotland, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have been designated as independent bodies to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the Convention.