Disabled People
Perspectives on the Convention
The Convention has the potential to make a real difference to the lives of people living with disability. Disability advocates speak about how the Convention affects their own lives
Wendy Neilson
President, DPA
I was recently in Vanuatu attending the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF), where the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was often at the centre of discussion. The Convention was seen as a powerful document because it has the strength of an international agreement. Therefore, if a country has signed and ratified this document, it has made a commitment to improve and value the lives of disabled people.
The PDF was set up in 2004, with the purpose of strengthening the capacity of the region’s Disabled Peoples’ Organisations in the Pacific to provide practical services, humanitarian support and advocacy services to their members and clients. The ultimate goal is to eliminate poverty for persons with disability living in the region. There are approximately 25 member nations, including New Zealand and Australia.
It was interesting to attend the forum, given the common ground of disability, and it was an overwhelming experience to interact with disabled people from so many island countries in the Pacific. Many of their issues are the same, and I became aware of how many of them/the nations live with Third World standards, compared to how developed we are in New Zealand and Australia. In most instances, education is not compulsory and is, therefore, costly. As a consequence, disabled people are caught in a poverty trap. Disabled people see the Convention as a real tool to give them the power to achieve their right to live a life equal to that of any other person.
Disabled people whose governments have signed and ratified the Convention see their country as making an international commitment to value the lives of citizens living with disability. The expectation is that the Convention will give persons with a disability equality and that decisions will not be made without their input. It is also believed that the Convention will give disabled people equal opportunities in education, employment, sport and recreation, quality of life, and enable them to make decisions for themselves. In doing so, this will enhance many other aspects of their lives.
While we have the Human Rights Act 1993, which is meant to stop discrimination, the greatest number of complaints made to the Human Rights Commission relate to issues still faced by people with disability. By signing and ratifying the Convention, the New Zealand Government has made an international commitment to recognise all aspects relating to the lives of New Zealand people with disability. The Convention is seen by the DPA as an important tool to empower and challenge the Government to treat New Zealand people with disability with the equity that is their right
As a teacher educator, I often refer to the Convention, when teaching students about the importance of children with disability receiving an education that takes individuals to their potential. The New Zealand Government has ratified the Convention. This makes it a significant tool to empower parents and disabled children to expect equity in their learning.
Dr Huhana Hickey
Advocate and Lawyer, Auckland Disability Law Centre
As an indigenous person with disabilities and as a lawyer, I have long been interested in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2000, I went to Washington DC with Wendi Wicks from DPA(NZ) to attend a symposium to discuss having a disability convention. I remember advocating for the inclusion of all peoples with disabilities, including those who face greater marginalisation because of disability and other identities they belong to.
Articles recognising discrimination based on identity were written for women and children with disabilities, but not for other marginalised peoples. To counter this gap, the UN included a statement, in the preamble to the Convention, to ensure those who face greater marginalisation, such as indigenous peoples and minorities with disabilities, are given the same rights and considerations as all others with disabilities. While an article for indigenous persons would have been preferred, this is a step in the right direction.
It was an honour to be the indigenous peoples’ representative for the International Disability Caucus Steering Group. Along with others around the world, we were able to give advice and input into the development of the Convention we see today. Signing and ratifying the Convention is just the beginning. There is a lot more work to be done and we have barely begun. I see major law reform ahead, with work needed to reflect article 12, on legal capacity. This article will hopefully change law for those most vulnerable in our communities and provide a voice that was previously silent. As a woman, I am now assured of the right to make health, reproductive and sexual choices, free from discrimination. As a parent, we can now argue for the right to education for those children previously denied such a right, where quality and accessibility has always been an issue.
As a Maori with disabilities, I hope I can finally have autonomy of my decisions, autonomy of my identity and autonomy of the disability services that oversee my impairment needs. This is significant for indigenous peoples in particular – we often sit outside the Western framework for disability and therefore experience greater disparities. Culture is essential to many people, and indigenous peoples with disabilities are no exception. Life is difficult enough with disability. The Convention offers us equality with non-disabled, and for indigenous people, equality with other indigenous and non-indigenous with and without the experience of impairment. This is particularly exciting, as we have a blank canvas on which to create our future. We need to work together but allow our diversity to come out, and allow our differences to influence our future with the Convention.
Colin Slade
Mental Health Consumer Advocate
What the adoption by Aotearoa New Zealand of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities might mean for people who experience psychiatric disability
Any significant effect on breaches of human rights that people with experience of mental illness will depend on how well implementation of the Convention is monitored. It is essential that those who experience discrimination because of their disability are part of the monitoring process.
A major task of monitoring the Convention will be how to make it easier to challenge discrimination. Since 1994 the Health and Disability Commission Code of Consumer Rights has helped to do this. However, widespread incidences of breaches of the Code still continue. Many of these breaches go unreported, because victims feel inhibited from complaining due to potential repercussions from staff responsible for their treatment.
Nevertheless, potential gains from the Convention’s adoption are huge. Negative discrimination against mental health consumers is amongst the worst experienced by any disability
The most invasive breaches of rights are through forced treatment in the mental health system. This includes incarceration in secure hospitals, forced medication, solitary confinement and physical assault (“restraint”).Attention is being given to reducing the use of solitary confinement as “therapy”. However, the Mental Health Act that permits this treatment overrides any other rights. There may be the opportunity to use the Convention to challenge this legislation.
Mental health consumers frequently experience breaches of their rights in employment matters. Existing law makes discrimination on the grounds of disability unlawful, but there are many ways for employers to disguise such discrimination. The Convention will add power to these laws and should enable more breaches to be brought to court.
Stigma by the media
The media continually publish health information about people with psychiatric disability, especially when connected with a crime. This inaccurately creates a public belief that mental health consumers are more likely to commit crime (especially violent crime) than people with or without other disabilities. The media will be under greater scrutiny because of the Convention.
Discrimination by the insurance industry
A significant result of media myth-building is that the insurance industry breaches the rights of people with experience of mental illness by declining insurance, excluding death cover or loading household premiums.
Such examples of breaches of rights will come under much greater scrutiny because of the Convention. Informed mental-health consumers may feel more confident in challenging breaches. While complaints and legal recourse will help to highlight breaches, education by the three commissions (Human Rights Commission, Health and Disability Commission and Mental Health Commission) will do much more to prevent them.
In a society where stigma and discrimination has built up over centuries, social and cultural change is a slow process. Adoption of the Convention will bring a powerful tool to that aid change but consumers may not notice these for some time.
Anne Hawker
Principal Disability Advisor, Ministry of Social Development
President, Rehabilitation International
Rehabilitation International (RI) is a global network of experts, professionals and advocates working together to empower persons with disabilities and provide sustainable solutions for a more inclusive and accessible society. Founded in 1922, RI has been a key player in the disability field and developed the International Symbol of Access – which has now become the most widely recognised symbol for disability worldwide. As the major New York based International Disability Organisation it has a key role in facilitating and co-ordinating civil society’s input into the development of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Convention is a significant document because it represents a paradigm shift from persons with disabilities being treated as objects to being treated as people with the same rights as everyone else.
One of the key challenges is to translate the document’s words into actions. These need to include getting people with disabilities into school and once enrolled making sure they have the same level of education as all students; ensuring the accessibility of public transport; and, having equitable access to health services.
The other key challenge is to ensure people with disabilities remain integral members of policy debates and decision-makers recognise the enormous amount of expertise existing in the disability sector. For people with disabilities this will mean providing appropriate advocacy.
The Ministry of Social Development recognises the need to have strong links with the disability sector as it works to ensure greater opportunities for people in employment. Further, it recognises that it is not enough that a person has a job but it must ensure that enabling workplaces exist. This latter aim has been demonstrated through Work and Income taking a leadership role in the development of the Employers’ Disability Network.