Arthritis Care welcomes UK government's statement on rights of disabled people

Arthritis Care has welcomed the UK government’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Convention reaffirms that disabled people have and should be able to enjoy the same rights as non-disabled people, and lays out the steps governments are expected to take to make this a reality.

Arthritis Care’s head of policy and campaigns, Federico Moscogiuri, said, “The UK government's ratification of the UN Convention is an important statement of commitment to making the rights of all disabled people, as enshrined in international law, a reality in the UK. We hope that the UK government will live up to the responsibilities that it has undertaken with this important step, particularly as they relate to people with arthritis.”

However, Arthritis Care is concerned that the government has made a reservation in respect of the armed forces which allows them to continue to be exempt from the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). This exemption is also a feature of the Equality Bill currently before Parliament and allows the armed forces to discriminate against disabled people.

“Arthritis Care rejects the arguments put forward by the Ministry of Defence that it should be exempt from even considering disabled people”, said Federico. “All the DDA requires is that people are judged on individual merit, rather than stereotype and prejudice, and a blanket exemption is simply discriminatory.”