What is the United Nations Convention?
The purpose of the Convention is “To promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.” It is both a development and a human rights instrument, a policy tool which works across different disabilities, and once ratified by a country, it is legally binding.
Countries that adopt the Convention engage themselves to develop and carry out policies, laws and administrative measures for securing the rights recognised in the Convention, and abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination.
Why have a Convention?
The Convention was formed as: - A response to an overlooked development challenge: approximately 10 percent of the world’s population are people with disabilities (more than 650 million people), approximately 80 percent of whom live in developing countries.
- A response to the fact that although pre-existing human rights conventions offer considerable potential to promote and protect the rights of people with
disabilities, this potential was not being tapped. People with disabilities continued being denied their human rights and were kept on the margins of society in all parts of the world. The Convention sets out the legal
obligations of countries to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. It does not create new rights.
What does the Convention mean for employment and people with MS?
In relation to employment, article 27 states that people with disabilities have equal rights to work and gain a living. Countries are to prohibit discrimination in job-related matters, promote self-employment, entrepreneurship and starting one’s own business, employ people with disabilities in the public sector, promote their employment in the private sector, and ensure that they are provided with reasonable accommodation at work.
Other related sections, or articles, of the Convention include article 24, on education, that would ensure that people with MS have equal opportunities for education to enable them to gain the skills they need for future employment. Transport to and from work can be a big issue in some countries, so article 20, on personal mobility, is also a key section. Mobility
and physically getting around can mean the difference between being able to work and not being able to work.
Peer Baneke, MSIF’s CEO, comments that “In countries where there is no legislation protecting people with disabilities, ratifying the UN Convention will make a major difference to people with MS.
A government will be required by law to promote suitable access to transport or to public buildings, helping to support the continuation of employment for people whose mobility is affected by MS.”
“In many respects, the Convention gives legal backing to our document, Principles to Promote the Quality of Life of People with MS. Once a country has ratified the Convention, MS societies or individuals can use the general standards in the UN Convention to advocate for more detailed national legislation; however, in many countries it will require persistent advocacy to get the government to implement in reality what it agrees to in principle,” suggests Peer.
For more information on the UN Convention, please
visit www.un.org/disabilities.
Has your country ratified the Convention?
If not, what can you do?- Cooperate with similar or like-minded
organisations, such as other MS societies in your region or other non-governmental organisations. - Contact your government and elected representatives by to discuss if and when the government intends to sign and ratify the Convention.
- Create a dedicated web page.
- Ask the general public and people affected by MS in your country to write to your government.
- Undertake media work.
For further information and useful campaigning resources, please contact us on info@msif.org
Countries that have ratified the Convention:
Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawai, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zambia.
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Other useful campaigning resources
MSIF’s Principles to Promote the Quality of Life of People with Multiple Sclerosis
To enhance the lives of people with MS, MSIF published a report which presents the “principles” to improve the quality of life of people with MS. For this edition of MS in focus, Principle 7 Employment and Volunteer Activities, is the most relevant. It requires that support systems and services are available to enable people with MS to continue employment as long as they are productive and desire to work.
In practice...
This principle was one of the ten analysed in a comparative study “Multiple Sclerosis: reality, social needs and quality of life” undertaken by the Spanish MS Federation and Multiple Sclerosis Association of Argentina to find out the reality of quality of life for people with MS in their countries.
The data was gathered through interviews and meetings with different groups: MS association leaders, professionals in rehabilitation of people with MS, neurologists specialising in MS and people with MS and their families. Overall, the concerns for people with MS living in Argentina and Spain were similar, but it was found that the size of the concerns and problems was greater in Argentina. They concluded that most of the issues around employment needed further compliance with the Principles to Promote Quality of Life of People with MS in their practical implementation.
The European Code of Good Practice
This document outlines the issues of fundamental importance to people affected by MS such as accessibility, job retention and discrimination challenges. It has been drawn up by the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform following a European Parliament Resolution on MS. It calls for information and awareness-raising programmes for people with MS, employers and co-workers and is available on www.ms-in-europe.org.
In practice...
EMSP launched a series of national “roundtables”, meetings between members of the MS community, national level stakeholders and decision-makers to discuss the application of the European Code of Good Practice. In March 2009, following a roundtable in Romania, the Romanian MS Society were invited to the Health Ministry to discuss a long-term strategy to establish specialised MS rehabilitation centres.
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