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Australia’s disability rights to do list

By October 2, 2019No Comments

Here are some of the key concerns about Australia’s implementation of the CRPD that were highlighted by the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, Geneva, September 2019:

  • That Australia must make progress to remove its interpretative declaration on Articles, 12. 17 and 18 – this is essential to ensure justice for people with disability in Australia.
  • That Australia must address the current limitations in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, to ensure anti-discrimination laws are strengthened, enable representative claims, enable complaints about disability hate crimes and to ensure people with disability can make complaints about denial of reasonable accommodation.
  • The serious delays in the third implementation plan of the National Disability Strategy (NDS) must be addressed, including the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
  • That the NDIS assessment criteria relies heavily on the medical model of disability, in contravention of the CRPD, and does not adequately cover older personas with disability, people from CALD backgrounds or Aboriginal and Torres Islander people with disability.
  • That national advocacy programs are not adequately or sustainably funded for people with disability.
  • That Australia should enact national uniform and enforceable legislation prohibiting sterilisation and medically unnecessary interventions on people with disability.
  • That a national action plan for inclusive education be developed that fully complies with article 24.
  • That a national disability jobs strategy be developed to increase workforce participation of people with disability.
  • That a formal mechanism be developed, including a monitoring and evaluation framework, for the implementation of the CRPD which involves the meaningful engagement of people with disability and their representative organisations.

You can download the full statement from the UN Human Rights Commission website, here. AFDO have also uploaded PDF and accessible Word versions on their website.

Contact
Disabled People’s Organisations Australia
PO Box 666
Strawberry Hills
NSW, Australia 2012
[email protected]