Columnist: UN human rights treaty needs to be backed by actions
March 15th, 2008Writing on the BBC’s Ouch website, columnist Tom Shakespeare says the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has made little difference in the way life is lived. He compares the treaty to a Mother’s Day card: well intentioned but ultimately ineffective. The measure will soon mark its first anniversary,
Guaranteeing people formal equality or freedom sounds great, but what really improves quality of life is access to employment or, failing that, adequate welfare benefits or services. Human rights tends to focus on the individual, whereas it’s more often structural and community solutions that are required.
Passing disability civil rights statutes is relatively simple and looks nice. Doing something to improve the situation for disabled people is complicated, costly and difficult. So expect lots of the former and less of the latter in future.
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on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 1:44 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, human rights, international, quality of life.
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