I Just Received An Email From 10 Downing Street!

Last year, I signed this petition. I then forgot all about it. So imagine my excitement today, when I recieved an email from 10 Downing Street, with no idea what it was about!

Well, the petition has now closed, as it’s deadline has passed. The email was Downing Street’s response to it. Here’s what they have to say for themselves:

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in full, without reservation or limitation, by December 2008.”

Details of Petition:

“The Convention is the first international treaty in history to create a specific legal framework to protect the human rights of disabled people across the globe and to recognise that disabled and non-disabled people share a common humanity. 20 countries need to ratify the Convention before it becomes legally binding. To date only 17 have done so. The UK is not among them. The UK signed the Convention in March 2007. Since then 2,000 people have signed a petition on this site calling on the Government to ratify it without delay. In response to pressure from campaigners the UK has pledged to ratify the Convention by the end of 2008. However, the Convention Campaign Coalition (CCC) is increasingly concerned that the Government might try to reserve, or opt out of, certain Convention rights.Reserving against certain Convention articles means that some parts of the Convention would not be legally binding in the UK. Human Rights are inalienable and universal. If the UK is truly committed to disabled people’s human rights it cannot pick and choose which Convention rights it is willing to support.”

Read the Government’s response

The Government is fully committed to ensuring equality for disabled people, and believes that the UN Convention is a powerful statement of disabled people’s human rights. That is why the Government supported the negotiations on the Convention; signed it as soon as it was possible to do so; and remains committed to ratifying the Convention as soon as possible.

The time from signature to ratification of similar Conventions by the UK varies considerably, and is on average four years. The Government’s original aim of ratification by the end of 2008, therefore, was always a very demanding one. Although the aim was not met, it was right to set a challenging timetable so that the Government could advance as far as it was able, and demonstrate the importance it places on the Convention. The Government’s revised ambition is to ratify the Convention in Spring 2009.

Some countries’ approach to ratification is aspirational, and that is a perfectly valid approach for them. The UK’s approach, however, is not to ratify any international treaty until it is in a position to ensure that it can implement the provisions and therefore comply with the obligations that it has accepted.  The UK has therefore been engaged in checking its laws, policies, practices and procedures against the Convention’s requirements.

Following this exercise a small number of reservations and interpretative declarations remain under consideration in respect of service in the armed forces, immigration, education and the review of arrangements for social security benefit appointees.

Reservations to international human rights treaties are often permitted and it is common for States to enter them on signature or ratification. Indeed, a number of States have already done so in respect of this Convention. Entering reservations does not of itself imply any fundamental lack of respect for human rights. In many cases States would not be able to ratify individual treaties without entering one or more reservations.

Most recently the Government has announced that it will sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention. This is a linked but separate Treaty which establishes two procedures aimed at strengthening the implementation and monitoring of the Convention.  The first is a procedural avenue that, subject to meeting conditions set out in the Optional Protocol, will enable individuals or groups of individuals to bring petitions to the UN Committee that has been established to monitor implementation of the Convention if they believe that their Convention rights have been breached. The second is an inquiry procedure giving the Committee authority to undertake inquiries, when reliable information is received, into allegations of grave or systematic violations of Convention rights.

This is good news for disabled people and the decision further demonstrates the Government’s firm commitment to the Convention, and to the principle of ensuring equality of human rights for disabled people.

I guess we’ll have to take what we can get, and keep hoping that they’ll keep their promise in Spring. I wish they would give us a more definite date, though!