---

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

My Lords, I warmly congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ashley of Stoke, on his comprehensive introduction to this short debate and applaud his robust and unremitting pursuit of full rights for disabled people. Equally relentless in pursuing this aim is the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester, and I am delighted that he will speak today. He played a key role in chairing Rehabilitation International’s world planning group that drafted the Charter for the Third Millennium, which called for the United Nations convention. Both noble Lords have kept the matter in front of this House in Oral Questions. I also congratulate the Government on their hard work—including Anne McGuire and, previously, Maria Eagle, as Ministers for disabled people—because the significance of the UN convention on disability is not to be underestimated. It is an outstanding achievement which would not have been possible without strong advocacy on the part of the UK Government. Doubtless the Office for Disability Issues is working hard to enable ratifications as soon as possible. Disabled people will then need a well co-ordinated and well resourced campaign to ensure that they can make full use of the convention in human rights cases and in securing a better deal for public services. We must also ensure disability organisations are properly resourced to monitor compliance with the convention. I endorse all that the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, has said about the CEHR needing to play a strong role. The Disability Commission is led by my noble friend Lady Campbell of Surbiton, who will, I know, ensure that there is expert involvement. I urge the Government to ensure that the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill passes swiftly to the statute book. Along with the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, I also urge the Government to close the loophole whereby disabled people in private or voluntary sector care homes appear not to be covered by the Human Rights Act, contrary to the intention of Parliament. I turn now to a subject close to my heart: education rights and closing the gaps in the light of the UN convention, which sets out strong standards for access to inclusive education for disabled people. Last week there was the launch of ““Progression Through Partnerships””, which is a joint strategy between the DfES, the Department of Health and the DWP on the role of further education and training and supporting people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Under three Ministers—Bill Rammell, Ivan Lewis and Anne McGuire—this three-pronged attack is hugely welcome. We know that you need both care and education to progress through learning to meaningful work. This should pave the way for disabled learners to have a meaningful, productive life. However, current equality legislation is failing disabled children, as the DRC points out. When schools were made subject to non-discrimination duties in 2001, the rights to auxiliary aids and services were excluded on the grounds that such provision would be made for pupils through the special educational needs framework. Yet the evidence shows that disabled pupils are losing out; increasing numbers either do not have a statement of SEN or do not fall within the definition of special educational needs. The exclusion of rights to auxiliary aids and services has led to a gap in provision for disabled children. This can mean that where this support is not delivered, disabled children can experience barriers to their participation in school life and difficulties in accessing teaching and learning. The lack of effective support can also mean that disabled children may have to be educated in specialist settings. It is disappointing that these issues were not even mentioned in the Green Paper on a single equality Act. Perhaps the relevant government departments might like to consider this in the light of the steps they will wish to take to ensure full implementation of the convention. I hope the Minister will comment on that. The National Autistic Society’s campaign, School Makes Sense, calls for every child to receive the education they deserve. The NHS comments that two of its demands are particularly relevant to the convention. First, ““the right school for every child”” is an inclusive education system called for by the convention in which a child receives the appropriate support for his or her needs. It should mean access to a range of provision and be flexible. Secondly, under ““the right approach in every school””, the School Makes Sense campaign calls on schools to make adjustments to facilitate autism-friendly schools and to increase understanding across the whole school. The convention’s commitments to peer support and the, "““full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth””," are therefore very welcome. The NAS also states that the disability equality duty requires public bodies, including schools and local authorities, to eliminate harassment, although it points out that the Government failed to mention the DED in its recent response to the Select Committee report on bullying. The convention is an opportunity to take that further and foster respect at an early age; for example, through citizenship classes to increase understanding of disability and more complex conditions such as autism. Bullying is a big problem with children on the autistic spectrum and with children with learning disabilities, as my noble friend Lord Rix has often told us so graphically. I turn to the need for a European disability directive. The UK Government’s leadership on the UN disability convention has been widely praised, as the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, pointed out. Now more than ever, that kind of leadership is needed to secure a comprehensive EU directive outlawing discrimination against disabled people in education, access to goods and services and all other areas of life. Four years ago the European Commission acknowledged the need for wider anti-discrimination legislation to complement the employment equality directive, but said that everything hinged on the willingness of member states to take that forward. A great opportunity exists to press forward with this. Please will the Minister assure us that the Government will do all they can to champion the urgent need for a European equivalent of the DDA? Such a directive would be vital to effective implementation of the UN disability convention by and across the European communities. It would also have direct benefits for disabled people in the UK, because it would open up new opportunities for inclusive travel and living and for taking up employment opportunities in other EU countries. It also represents the best means of securing progress on inclusive design of manufactured goods, which are currently excluded from the DDA. Seven years ago I opened a short debate asking the Government whether they had made any response to Rehabilitation International’s newly promulgated charter for disabled people worldwide. I referred to a Bill on the special educational needs and disabled rights in education that was coming soon. I hoped it would facilitate and ensure successful and inclusive education. We still have some way to go, at home as well as abroad. I continued: "““Many of your Lordships have spent hours—even years—discussing transport, accessible housing and access to work in this Chamber. By now I hope that we understand the problems and how to solve them, even if we have not yet wholly eliminated them””.—[Official Report, 14/7/00; col. 555.]" We still have a little way to go. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, for introducing this debate, and look forward to the contribution of other noble Lords. I hope the Government, in promoting the UN convention, will pass the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill, secure a comprehensive EU disability directive and really bring the day closer when people with disabilities throughout the world can experience the same life chances as the rest of the society they inhabit.