Dear All,
Please see (pasted below Richard's email) all three documents.
From: "r rieser" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Briefing and Lobby on UN Convention 30th June 2005
Dear Mike
As you may know the UN Convention Ad Hoc meetings are not going well.
The UK will be leading the EU at the 6th Ad Hoc meeting in New York from
1st to 12h August.
I also attach letters for those in influential positions to endorse and
one calling for examples of inclusion to be put into a pamphlet to be
produced by CSIE to be given to state partiers in New York.
Can you circulate the attached on danmail and any other networks of
disabled people you are in touch with.
Thanks
Richard Rieser
Director of Disability Equality in Education
Unit GL, Leroy House,
436, Essex Road,
LONDON N1 3QP
Tel +44 (0)207 359 2855
************************************************************
FROM: THE CENTRE FOR STUDIES ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION; THE ALLIANCE FOR
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION; DISABILITY EQUALITY IN EDUCATION: THE BRITISH COUNCIL
OF DISABLED PEOPLE; PARENTS FOR INCLUSION; THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS ALLIANCE
FOR ENGLAND
May 2005
Dear Friends,
HUMAN RIGHTS AT STAKE
We the undersigned wish to alert you to a serious erosion of hard won human
rights and the danger of these backwards steps being enshrined in new
amendments to the UN Disability Convention in August 2005.
The world is still full of inequality and this inequality is growing rather
than diminishing. The gap between the richest and the poorest is widening
and the scale of the harm being done to the poorest is escalating. The most
vulnerable people - children, ill and disabled people, the elderly are being
left without protection as globalisation has included introducing the free
market into services (see the latest General Agreement in Trade and Services
emanating from the World Trade Organisation). The commitment following the
Second World War to 'Never go back to such inhumanity' is being quietly
destroyed by the advance of the profit motive into every facet of our lives.
The UN Charter of Human Rights was an attempt to balance such forces of
economics with the rational needs of human beings, especially those without
power or wealth. How such people are valued still follows a hierarchy. All
over the world disabled people and people with learning difficulties are
near the bottom of the pile. In fact this group of people has never even
been afforded an unequivocal right to life as can be seen in the financing
of State organised pre-natal screening programmes and differential abortion
laws in the UK, The USA and many other countries. These outlaw late-term
abortion except on the grounds of impairment.
In the first - rich - world, there have been several 'Right To Life' legal
cases recently, one of which over-rode even President Bush in order to
support a husbands 'right' to withdraw food and water from his disabled wife
despite her families desperate protest. She later died of starvation.
Another case of a disabled man who won the right to be fed even if he should
become unable to communicate has seen the British Medical Council appealing
against the decision. These cases illustrate the importance of defendable
human rights, but Richard Light, UK representative of Disabled People at the
UN stated in his report following the 5th Ad Hoc Committee that:
"We are extremely concerned that some of the Draft Articles will lead to a
worsening of rights for disabled people.
Currently Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) states:
'No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. In particular no one shall be subjected without his
free consent to medical or scientific experimentation'
However the following draft articles in the Convention do not protect this
right
Article 8 - Right to Life'; Article 9 - Equal Recognition as a person before
the Law; Article 10 - Liberty and security of the person; Article 11 -
Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading a treatment or
punishment; Article 12 - Freedom from violence and abuse; Article 16 -
Children with Disabilities.
In particular the current draft allows for abuse of disabled people in
access to medical 'treatment' including hydration; clinical trials,
involuntary institutionalisation and involuntary medical intervention.
Although the Survivor Movement has been most prominent in speaking out
against involuntary intervention, the generality of some of the proposals
for the Draft Text presents a substantial risk to all disabled people. For
example, the current wording of some proposals would appear to permit -
irrespective of whether states would seek to impose - involuntary cochlear
implants or sterilisation, for example'."
This is not an issue which only affects a minority of people. Disability is
an experience which can happen to anyone, and the value system which
underpins this level of dehumanisation remains a threat to every one of us.
Human Rights are meaningless if they become null and void in the event of
becoming ill or disabled.
All of us who are signing this letter believe that inclusive education is
key to the changing of these negative and de-humanising attitudes towards
disability and impairment, but at the 5th Ad Hoc Meeting in New York to look
at and amend the current convention, it was proposed that there should be an
absolute right to segregated education (Article 17). This would deny the
possibility of ever ensuring a universal right to inclusive education by
making it a matter of 'choice' and not of rights.
Although there was a strong lobby of Deaf and Blind people at the UN whose
voices swayed the arguments, this voice is not representative of disabled
people as a whole and is not based on knowledge of good practice currently
happening in inclusive education, much of which would reassure the lobby
that their needs could be successfully addressed within a properly supported
mainstream education system, with the added social advantages of mixing with
a diverse population of young people from all backgrounds and of all
abilities. It is difficult to see how, without this, equality can ever be
achieved. Poorer countries will never be able to afford the setting up of a
dual system for disabled children in order to allow for such 'choice'. The
reality is that it will lead to the continuation of the current situation
where the majority of disabled children are denied an education altogether.
We urge you to make sure these matters are discussed widely and as a matter
of utmost urgency at the meeting in New York.
Yours in Solidarity
Micheline Mason Richard Rieser Linda Shaw, Jo Cameron
The Alliance for Disability Equality Centre for Studies
Parents for
Inclusive Education in Education on Inclusive Education
Inclusion
Carolyne Willow Anne Pridmore for
The Children's rights Alliance for England British Council of
Disabled People
Endorsed by:
Professor Len Barton Institute of Education
Professor Colin Barnes Leeds University Disability Research Unit
Inclusive Solutions
Joe Whittaker, University of Bolton Action Research Centre for Inclusive
Education
***************************************************
FROM: THE CENTRE FOR STUDIES ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION; THE ALLIANCE FOR
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION; BRITISH COUNCIL OF DISABLED PEOPLE; DISABILITY
EQUALITY IN EDUCATION; PARENTS FOR INCLUSION; THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
ALLIANCE FOR ENGLAND
May 2005
Dear Fellow Inclusionists,
There is an important 6th Ad Hoc Meeting to consider amendments to the UN
Disability Convention in New York this August where they may be a chance to
reverse some previous poor decisions and to make progress on the right to
inclusive education for all young people. Representatives from CSIE, The
Alliance for Inclusive Education and DEE/ BCODP are planning to go, but you
can help us.
We need examples of inclusive education working around the world especially
in poorer countries and especially with children who are deaf, deaf/blind,
blind and with children with significant speech impairments and/or learning
difficulties. Brief descriptions are all that is needed. A photo would be a
bonus. We will collate and publish this into a short document which we will
circulate to all member states and widely at the meeting itself. We will
use this to argue strongly for amendments to the convention which will
afford greater protection to this increasingly vulnerable group.
(please e-mail to Linda Shaw at [log in to unmask] )
We would also like you to sign the enclosed letter aimed at representatives
of Member States as a way of endorsing our position. This will help us to
encourage the issues up into prominence within the meeting where they are
currently in danger of being ignored.
Thanking you greatly,
Best wishes,
Micheline Mason Richard Rieser Linda Shaw, Jo Cameron
The Alliance for Disability Equality Centre for Studies
Parents for
Inclusive Education In Education on Inclusive Education
Inclusion
Carolyne Willow Anne Pridmore
The Children's Rights Alliance for England Acting Chair BCODP
************************************************************
British Council of Disabled People
International Committee
Disabled People's Rights Draft UN Convention
Human Rights are at stake!
Briefing and Lobby of Parliament. Please Support.
Thursday 30th June 1.00 to 2.30 pm. Followed by a Lobby.
House of Commons Committee Room 5
On 1st July the British Government take over the Presidency of the European
Union.
This means the UK will lead negotiations on the Draft Convention for 25
European countries at the UN in New York in August at the 6th Ad Hoc
Meeting.
Why is this important?
Currently the Draft Convention is giving disabled people substantially worse
rights than other people particularly in - Article 8 - Right to life;
Article 9 - Equal recognition as a person before the law; Article 10 -
Liberty and security of the person; Article 11 - Freedom from torture or
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Article 12 - Freedom
from violence and abuse; Article 16 - Children with disabilities. Article 17
Education allows for a choice of segregated education.
In particular the current drafts allow for abuse of disabled people in
access to medical 'treatment', including hydration; clinical trials;
involuntary institutionalisation, and involuntary medical intervention.
________________End of message______________________
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