Re-blogged, with some changes, from
http://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/3883/
[Note from Samuel Miller] I am a 57-year-old Disability Studies specialist and disability activist
from Montreal, Canada who has been reporting frequently and
voluntarily, since January 2012, to senior United Nations officials on the crisis for
the United Kingdom's sick and disabled. Austerity measures, consisting
of draconian welfare reforms and "
sham"
means-
testing (Atos Healthcare U.K. and the Department for Work and
Pensions) are ostensibly to blame for their plight—with disability hate
crime and inflammatory media attacks factored into this mix.
The below should be considered an open letter to all sick and disabled persons in the United Kingdom—especially disability campaigners, whom I am requesting to re-blog it. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance.
UK Government wrongs, Human Rights and a call for evidence from UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik
“My hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Katy
Clark) mentioned the legality of the Government’s legislation. Let me be
clear that our Governments have been condemned by the International
Labour Organisation and other international organisations for two
decades now because of their trade union legislation.
It is not just about the right to strike; it is about certain
basic and fundamental trade union rights. The clause, yet again, imposes
further duties that I believe to be completely contrary to ILO (International Labour Organization conventions).
Yet again, this country will be isolated in the world and
condemned for its attack on trade union rights, which are incorporated
in all those international statutes and conventions as a basic human
right” -John McDonnell.
An additional concern for me was the lack of transparency and
opportunity for pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill. The Government
deliberately withheld details – the Electoral Commission had not see the
draft Bill, nor had the Select Committee seen it in full.
Cameron is also attempting to limit judicial review. If Select
Committees are excluded from the legislative process, a case can be
challenged under judicial review as that means the legislation is being
created on an undemocratic and procedurally unfair basis. Select
Committees are part of the constitutional area of law-making, they
simply cannot be ignored.
The withholding of key details of drafted Bills from Select
Committees means that effective and organised challenging from the
opposition is stifled, too. We most certainly have an authoritarian
Government that arrived unannounced and unauthorised, one that has very
clearly spent some time out of Office spitefully planning an attack on
civil society, and the dismantling of the means of redress. The contents
of the Lobbying Bill highlight this further.This was a carefully
calculated move, and such tactics have become increasingly common since
this Government took Office. It would be an enormous mistake, if not
academic dishonesty, to pretend that we now live in a first world
liberal democracy.
As I have said elsewhere, the purpose of Government in any democracy
is to reflect the needs of a population. This Government seems to
believe that the population are here to fulfil their own needs, and they
are exploiting the vulnerable, stealing lifeline benefits from them –
which we have all paid for via taxes – to profit the very wealthy. This
is authoritarianism, and not democracy.
The disclosure from the opposition of yet another contravention of
our human rights in Government policy-making comes at a time when the
United Nations (UN) have found that the welfare reforms are also in
breach of international human rights statute.
The bedroom tax constitutes a violation of the human right to
adequate housing in several ways. If, for example, the extra payments
force tenants to cut down on their spending on food or heating their
home. There are already a number of legal challenges to the bedroom tax
under way in British courts. In principle the judiciary here takes into
account the international human rights legislation because the UK has
signed and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.
“Everyone has the right to a
standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and
of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”.
Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also guarantees the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. The
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities CRPD was
ratified by the UK on 8th June 2009. With the possible exception of
European treaties, the CRPD is the most important international treaty
on disability.
The Government welfare “reforms” (cuts) undermine the right to live independently and to be included in the community - Article19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights conducted an enquiry and found that CRPD
did not have a significant role in the Coalition development of welfare
policy and legislation, as is required by the Convention.
I heard Grant Shapps attempt to trivialise the issue of the
Government’s breach of our human rights with their Bedroom Tax policy by
pointing out that other countries are breaching human rights. The
Government here have breached International human rights standards and
law, regardless of whether or not other Governments in the world have
done so.
The fact that this Government have been found to infringe upon our
fundamental human rights by an independent assessor, using international
legal standards didn’t seem to faze him one bit. His response and anger
was directed only at the fact that the assessment had happened at all.
People are dying here, many are made homeless, we are seeing a
massive increase in food poverty, and people are committing suicide
because they are so very desperate. This is because of the Government’s
welfare “reforms”. Human suffering, loss of dignity and death may have
many facets, but all of them are equally unforgiving, and when imposed
by humans on fellow humans, all are equally unforgivable.
Unabashed by this, and the fact that this Government are actually
found to be guilty of human rights violations, Shapps made an outrageous
and personal attack on UN envoy Raquel Rolnik. The right-wing media
have followed in pursuit, using shameful racism and diversionary
character assassination techniques to try and discredit Raquel.
Raquel
Rolnik, UN special housing rapporteur has made an initial
recommendation about a number of issues – all of which have been
highlighted by the media, politicians and advocates working on housing
related matters, in particular:
(1) the bedroom tax breaches human rights
(2) regulation of the private rent sector is needed, and
(3) social housing stock needs to be increased.
She also expressed concern about the impact of welfare reforms and
austerity measures on the most vulnerable and highlighted that she had
seen signs retrogression in the enjoyment of the right to adequate
housing.
The UN aide also wants the Bedroom Tax to be investigated fully, as
the scheme was never piloted and already constitutes an assault on human
rights.The Bedroom Tax is an unfair piece of legislation which has
disproportionately negative consequences on disabled people, and those
already on the lowest incomes and is therefore discriminatory, as
outlined in Labour’s Equality Act, 2010.
She said: “If one life is lost because of these reforms it is one too many“.
Raquel has also hit back at the aggressive behaviour and language of
the UK Government following her criticisms of the “bedroom tax”, or
“spare room subsidy”, which she recommended be immediately suspended in a
press release yesterday. Shapps has claimed Ms Rolnik of being
“politically biased” but of course UN Officials are apolitical when it
comes to applying the LAW, which is the same, regardless of whether or
not a person investigating a breach of that law is liked by the
Government, our media, and regardless of alleged personal
characteristics.
Raquel Rolnik acted within her remit and did meet the members of the
Government, despite the Tory chairman’s claims to the contrary.
Although Shapp’s complaints about Ms Rolnik’s failure to meet
face-to-face with the ministers responsible for welfare and housing –
and hence an alleged lack of balance in her statement – seem somewhat
ironic and grossly misplaced, given that it was the Government who did
not act on her pre-visit request for those meetings.
She also pointed out at a press
conference she held yesterday that she was invited by the Government to
be here and that she did speak to Government ministers, including David
Foster, Eric Pickles, officials from the Department of Work and
Pensions, and she had a list of all the meetings.
She has rightly criticised the deplorably aggressive behaviour of the UK Government:
“It was the first time a Government has been so aggressive. When
I was in the USA, I had a constructive conversation with them accepting
some things and arguing with others. They did not react like this.”
Nor did Croatia, Algeria, Maldives, Argentina, United States,
Israel, Rwanda, Palestine, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. In none of these
countries did she experience the same level of hostility and
aggressiveness from the Government, Raquel informs us.
This truly is a Government of bullying authoritarians that shame us
internationally, and this lady was a guest in our Country. It’s
atrocious that the Government could not extend courtesy, respect and
good manners to this UN envoy. The utter disregard the Government showed
the findings of this inspection shows the world how little regard our
Government has for vulnerable citizens, how little concern they have for
their welfare and rights, and that they couldn’t even put up a pretence
of “best behaviour” and polite engagement with an international
audience.
Raquel Rolnik wants to hear about all of the human rights abuses
currently occurring in the UK, particularly those related to the welfare
reforms. She is also interested in any experiences involving
suppression of a right to free speech and protest. I wrote to the UN
Human Rights Council recently about the implications of legal aid reform
and also about the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and
Trade Union Administration Bill. Previously I have written about the
welfare reforms, and had some discussion with the Commission, who have
condemned the whole raft of reforms as “retrogressive”.
At her press conference in London, Raquel Rolink once again
criticised the Government regarding the the bedroom tax and the benefit
cap, and said that Government are clearly violating our human rights,
attacking those who needed the support. She has called for an immediate
suspension of the bedroom tax and the benefit cap. She said the bedroom
tax was not piloted, either.
She mentioned the personal testimonies of people affected by the
bedroom tax, the lack of affordable housing the long waiting lists for
social housing. Raquel recognises that people cannot move, and cannot
afford to pay moving costs. She acknowledged that people with both
mental and physical health conditions were dreadfully affected, and that
low income workers are also desperately struggling. She can see that
those affected are at substantial risk of their health deteriorating as a
consequence of the stressful circumstances raised by the bedroom tax,
and she acknowledged that people are dying because of the terrible
impact of these measures, and that people cannot afford to eat, and heat
their homes in order to pay it and keep a roof over their heads.
Raquel stated clearly to the representatives from the media that the
policies introduced by this Government do contravene our human rights.
She then asked for an immediate suspension of the bedroom tax, for more
social housing and private rental housing to be built, for rents to be
lowered so people can afford to live and the rents to be capped.
Representatives from Atos Miracles asked if Raquel would look at
evidence regarding Atos Healthcare and the Work Capability Assessments
(WCA) and the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) related deaths. The
numbers of the people who have died due to a deterioration in their
condition and all of the related suicides within 6 weeks of their ESA
claims ending were mentioned. Racquel Rolnik said she would examine all
of the welfare changes and welcomed personal stories about the WCA and
how it is affecting people.
Therefore Raquel wants to collate accounts from everyone
affected, and this evidence will be presented to the United Nations
General Council in March. Personal stories will be included in the
report she presents.
Raquel was made aware of the Parliamentary debate regarding the
Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union
Administration Bill currently going through parliament. She made it
clear that the people of the UK have a democratic right to protest and
to freedom of expression, as the Government signed the agreement at the
UN Convention to allow this freedom.
The UN will not permit the UK Government to prevent people from
speaking out, as is their democratic right. Racquel is interested in any
experiences you may have regarding any prevention you have experienced
in exercising democratic rights. These experiences, for example, may
include being stopped from speaking out on the streets at events or
meetings, as well as being restrained or curtailed during a protest or
demonstration.
Towards the end of the conference, campaigners handed Racquel two
boxes of personal testimonies and accounts amounting to well over 2,000,
from people adversely affected by the bedroom tax. She was shocked by
the sheer volume of accounts. Raquel said that she will read every
single one.
You can email Raquel Rolnik regarding Atos and the WCA and any other
issue related to welfare reform. She also wants to know about any
experiences that have happened when you have not been allowed or able to
speak out, as is your democratic right. I think that the poll
tax-styled council tax benefit cuts are also having a dire impact on
many people and this would be worth including, too. As would any
experience with difficulties accessing legal aid, as that reform
also breaches Article 6(1) of the European Convention of Human Rights: the right to a fair trial.
Raquel Rolnik’s email address is: srhousing@ohchr.org
You can also write to:
His Excellency Mr Ban Ki Moon
United Nations Secretary-General
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
USA
E-mail: sgcentral@un.org
No comments:
Post a Comment