I was proud this week to represent the United Kingdom as an equalities minister at the United Nations conference on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP18). It was a very powerful event with an opportunity to hear from and meet the conference president, the UN deputy secretary-general and other nations on progress on implementing the Convention.
The overarching theme of this year’s conference is ‘enhancing public awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities for social development’ leading up to the Second World Summit for Social Development, and will also drive work I will be doing in Feltham and Heston over the next year to further engage and support local residents and children with disabilities in education, employment and civic participation. The UK’s focus for COSP18 was also on the sub-theme of using AI to support inclusivity and enhance participation of persons with disabilities, demonstrating our forward leaning and human rights-based approach to technological innovation.
The UK is determined to boost opportunity and champion the rights of disabled people. I’m proud the government is working closely with disabled people and their representative organisations, ensuring that their views and voices are at the heart of everything we do.
Subscribe to our weekly ePaper for £2 a month – click here
We have recently engaged with disabled people through a public consultation and launched a call for evidence for our Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. The Bill will make the right to equal pay effective for disabled people and ethnic minorities, and introduce mandatory disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers, and will be work I will be helping lead in Parliament.
We have also appointed lead ministers for disability who represent the interests of disabled people and champion disability inclusion and accessibility across each government department, a role I also hold in the Home Office.
The UK government remains strongly committed to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have developed new training aiming to increase knowledge of the Convention across government. We have also recently extended the Convention to the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda.
Globally, we are faced with the climate and nature crisis and a greater number of conflicts than at any time since 1945. We know that disabled people are disproportionately affected by these crises, so promoting disability inclusion internationally is more important than ever.
This year marks the UN’s 80th anniversary. It serves as a reminder that only by acting together can we address global challenges head on and defend human rights for all. That is why we must build on the momentum of the Global Disability Summit in April.
At the summit, the UK announced a set of ambitious commitments to mainstream disability in our international work. This included: generating $60m of investment capital from the private sector and multilateral institutions through the Assistive Technology Growth Fund; integrating disability inclusion in our ‘Green Cities and Infrastructure Centre of Expertise’; and ensuring all our international education programming is disability inclusive.
The UK has also announced its co-chairing of the Global Action on Disability network of governments, civil society, foundations and the private sector, through which we will bring partners together in support of stronger national and international systems that deliver disability rights, leave no one behind and implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
