Published: November 16th 2008 - at 5:18 am

Anyone with any interest in Disability Rights should know by now that the UK government is currently refusing to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This is the first  international, legally binding human rights instrument to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

According to BBC News, the government hopes to ratify the Convention by December 2008, but plans to modify its obligations in some areas, particularly the right of people with disabilities to access a mainstream education. With developing countries such as India, Bangladesh and South Africa on the growing list that have already ratified the CRPD, with no modifications, this is not good enough for Disability Rights campaigners in the UK- a country which claims to be developed.

Access to mainstream education has always been a struggle for disabled children and their parents. Richard Rieser is the director of Disability Equality in Education (DEE), a small non-governmental organisation that provides training, consultancy and resources to improve the position of disabled people in the education system. He has recently made the news for his efforts to convince the government to commit to improving facilities in mainstream schools by the year 2025, so that they can meet the needs of any disabled children who wish for a mainstream education, and, therefore, make more of an effort to practise what Disability Rights Campaigners call Inclusion.

On Sunday, 9^th November 2008, DEE held a screening of one of their resources on Inclusive Education at the Tricycle Cinema in London. The short documentary,  
Developing Inclusive Education in South Africa, made by Richard Rieser and Ann Pugh, raises awareness of some of the steps that have been taken by the South African government to include their disabled children in mainstream education.

It was screened as part of a fundraising event, held in association with The Nihal Armstrong Trust, (NAT), a registered charity set up in 2004, in memory of my childhood friend, Nihal Armstrong. The Trust provides grants to the families of children aged 18 and under with Cerebral Palsy, for equipment and services to improve their lives, which local authorities are not able to provide.

NAT also screened a short documentary at the event on Sunday afternoon. Sarcastically titled The Authorities Are Always Right, the film by talented documentary maker Sapna Ramnani, who herself has Cerebral Palsy and is a great success story of an inclusive education, tells the story of Nihal Armstrong’s fight for a mainstream education from 1990 to 2001- a long, difficult and painful struggle which was eventually successful.  

At the time when Nihal Armstrong, Sapna Ramnani and many others were fighting to be included into mainstream schools, there was no Convention to protect the rights of disabled people. Yet both of these extremely intelligent people deserved the success that they found in the mainstream education system.

To Disability Rights Campaigners, the government’s plans to allow more disabled MPs into Parliament seem pointless unless they can also protect the rights of ordinary disabled people by ratifying the CRPD.

If ratifying the Convention will save even one intelligent disabled child the pain that Nihal Armstrong experienced, I think it would be well worthwhile. Just as Nihal Armstrong’s local authority were very wrong ever to question his ability to benefit from a mainstream education, the UK government are wrong today, in taking so long to ratify such an important Convention.

About the author
Sarah is a DisAbled blogger with a degree in Creative Writing. Sarah blogs at Same Difference about DisAbility issues and worked as a copy editor for the magazine Society Today. She has written a collection of poetry about life with a physical disability 'Listen To The Silence'.
· Other posts by Sarah Ismail


Story Filed Under: Blog ,Equality ,Labour party ,Westminster

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