The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has just (June 2016) published a number of new resources aimed at “putting human rights at the heart of health and social care”.
The EHRC states that these resources are “aimed at nurses, midwives, residential care staff and those working with people who have learning difficulties”.
But parents and carers might find something interesting in there. It’s worth investigating, if only to know what professional carers looking after people with learning disabilities should know about their human rights. For example, we have just located this from the British Institute of Human Rights: Getting with the Act: Our Human Rights Act (“This easy-to-read interactive eBook will take you on a whistlestop tour of where our human rights came from, how they’re protected by our Human Rights Act, and the difference our Human Rights Act has made in real life in the 15 years that it has been in force.”)
On the subject of the human rights of the learning disabled, in the past (online and in our members’ magazine Resnews), we have written about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) especially with regard to education and housing ***.
Recent email traffic has alerted us to the fact that the 9th session of the Conference of States Parties (within the ‘United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development – Disability’) finished yesterday, 16th June.
This was the agenda: “The overarching theme of this year’s session is: “Implementing the 2030 development agenda for all persons with disabilities: Leaving no one behind”. Sub-themes of the Conference include: 1) Eliminating poverty and inequality for all persons with disabilities, 2) Protecting the rights of persons with mental and intellectual disabilities, 3) Enhancing accessibility to information, technology and inclusive development and 4) Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the CRPD.
We notify you of any significant outcomes, especially with regard to sub-theme 2 (in bold, above).
*** The full text of the UN’s CRPD, and an easy-read version, is now available via the links on the relevant EHRC webpage .
Addendum (May 2018) This EHRC page has several other links explaining the ‘State Examination’ process, and the results and effect of the UK’s Examination in 2017.